- Gavin McKenna FaceTimed Jeff O’Neill to ask permission before claiming No. 92 in Toronto
- O’Neill, the first Maple Leaf to wear 92, signed off with a two-word blessing
- Read below for why McKenna landed on 92 and O’Neill’s full reaction
Gavin McKenna didn’t just pick a number. He asked for permission first.
The Maple Leafs’ No. 1 pick FaceTimed Jeff O’Neill after dinner to ask if he could wear No. 92 next season, the same number O’Neill once wore in Toronto. O’Neill, now a TSN analyst, didn’t need long to think it over.
O’Neill shared the exchange on X:
McKenna wanted his junior number, 72, but the Leafs handed that to newly signed goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. His backup options were spoken for too, with 9 and 27 both hanging in the rafters. So he blended the leftovers.
“I said that nine and 27 are up in the rafters, wanted to have a little bit of both in there,” McKenna said after the final day of Toronto’s development camp. “So, 92… nine replacing the seven.” We covered the full breakdown of how McKenna arrived at 92 earlier this week.
The number carries a short history in Toronto. O’Neill was the first to wear it, across his final two NHL seasons in 2005-06 and 2006-07. Only Igor Ozhiganov in 2018-19 and Alexander Nylander in 2024-25 have pulled it on since.
McKenna reports to camp as the presumptive face of the franchise. He’ll do it in a number O’Neill was happy to hand down.
