- John Tavares confirmed Gavin McKenna will live with his family this season
- Tavares lived with Doug Weight as an Islanders rookie and called the offer full-circle
- Read below for the full quotes from the NHL player media tour in Las Vegas
Gavin McKenna will not have to figure out Toronto on his own. He is going to figure it out from John Tavares’ spare room.
The No. 1 overall pick will live with Tavares and his family through the 2026-27 season, a plan Tavares confirmed Tuesday night at the NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas. Mark Lazerus of The Athletic had it first.
Tavares was asked what he wants the season to look like for an 18-year-old walking into that market:
“You want him to go out and enjoy all the great things about being a Maple Leaf, and living his dream, playing in the NHL, and the opportunity to play for an unbelievable fan base that’s going to love him and support him. And when it does feel heavy at times, or when it is a lot, going through it for the first time, he has that ability to just be in a family environment.”
He is speaking from the same chair McKenna is sitting in now. The Islanders took Tavares first overall in 2009, and he spent a couple of his early NHL years living with Doug Weight.
“You don’t always realize it at the time, but it just opens your eyes to so many different things,” Tavares told The Canadian Press.
Then he put a name on what he is doing now.
“Full-circle for me to offer that opportunity up.”
The arrangement came together after a conversation with new general manager John Chayka. Tavares and his wife, Aryne, have done this before, hosting Matthew Knies and Easton Cowan in past seasons.
McKenna arrives with more noise around him than either of those two had. He is 18, he is from Whitehorse, and he put up 15 goals and 51 points in 35 games as a Penn State freshman before adding 14 points in seven games at the world juniors.
Tavares points to that volume as the reason he made the offer at all.
“The attention can be a lot at times, especially just being 18 years old and from a small town in a more remote place out in the Yukon.”
Toronto finished last in the Atlantic Division at 78 points last season and missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade, then won the draft lottery with the fifth-best odds. McKenna is the centerpiece of everything Chayka has rebuilt around him.
Catch the day Toronto introduced him:
Tavares turns 36 later this month, coming off 31 goals and 71 points in all 82 games. His last piece of advice for the kid down the hall was the simplest one.
“You’re a rookie once in the NHL. Just enjoy it, be driven, compete your ass off, and have fun with it.”
