- Gavin McKenna is the consensus No. 1 pick as the 2026 NHL Draft opens Friday in Buffalo
- The Penn State winger credits his grandfather, a residential school survivor, as his biggest motivation
- Read below for McKenna’s record-setting freshman year and what his Yukon community has planned
Gavin McKenna doesn’t have much longer to wait, and neither does a small community in the Yukon.
The Penn State winger is the consensus No. 1 pick heading into the 2026 NHL Draft, which opens Friday night at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. Toronto holds the top selection after winning the lottery, and McKenna is the name everyone expects them to call. He would be the first men’s hockey player from Penn State ever taken in the first round.
McKenna has talked about what carried him through a brutal freshman adjustment nearly 3,500 miles from home. The answer keeps coming back to his grandfather, Joe Mason.
“He’s a huge influence,” McKenna told NHL.com. “He’s gone through so much in his life. For me, that’s my motivation.”
Mason is a 72-year-old survivor of Canada’s residential school system. He once told his grandson about being left in the mountains as a boy and forced to survive on his own for days. McKenna, a citizen of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation in the Yukon, leaned on that perspective whenever the noise online got loud.
“If I’ve got something going on in my life that’s hard, I know it’s nothing compared to what he’s gone through,” McKenna said.
The on-ice resume backs up the hype. McKenna finished tied for fifth in the NCAA with 51 points, 15 goals and 36 assists in 35 games, won the Big Ten scoring title, and landed as a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. He set or tied nine Penn State records along the way.
His signature night came February 20 against Ohio State. McKenna piled up eight points and seven assists in an 11-4 win, the most points in an NCAA Division I game in 39 years. Watch the record-setting performance:
Back home in Dawson City, his community is getting ready. Members of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in plan to pack the Äłät Nëhëjël community hall to watch the draft, with a special temporary tattoo designed for everyone in attendance.
Watch-party organizer Alysha Van Bibber explained why the night means so much in the Yukon.
“I think this is special because from interviews and stuff I’ve seen of Gavin McKenna, he’s very proud of being TH,” Van Bibber said. “I think it would be nice to be able to celebrate him and reflect that back.”
The draft runs June 26-27. When Toronto goes on the clock Friday night, a hall in the Yukon will be watching one of their own.
