As the Toronto Maple Leafs continue to weigh their options with the No. 1 pick in this month’s draft, top prospect Gavin McKenna revealed general manager John Chayka visited him in his hometown in the Yukon.
“Chayka, he ended up coming up to Whitehorse,” McKenna revealed on the “NHL Draft Class” podcast. “So I got to meet with him and had a really good conversation with him. I think they’ve got their combine after this, so go meet with them there, and we’ll see where things go.”
The combine is currently underway, running through Saturday in Buffalo, with other top options such as Ivan Stenberg also taking part.
While many signs point towards the Maple Leafs selecting McKenna first overall, the team’s director of amateur scouting, Mark Leach, said nothing has been finalized.
“It won’t be locked in [after the combine],” Leach said on the NHL Draft Class podcast. “We will be discussing it after this week, we’ll be rehashing it. I think in this situation we want to be able to take the time. We have the time, so why not take it? Dig back in and keep going over and making sure you’re making the right decision for the organization.”
NHL.com reports the Maple Leafs have interviews scheduled with 51 prospects at the combine. After the No. 1 pick, Toronto will be back on the clock with the 60th overall pick in the second round.
McKenna played his first and only NCAA season in 2025-26, recording 15 goals and 51 points in 34 games with Penn State. He had a strong performance for Canada at the World Junior Championship midway through the season, posting 14 points in seven games en route to a bronze medal.
“Obviously it’s the biggest hockey market in the world. I’d be very honoured,” McKenna told TSN of potentially joining the Maple Leafs last week. “I hear good things about Toronto. It sounds like an amazing place.”
McKenna made the move to the NCAA from the Western Hockey League after spending three seasons with the Medicine Hat Tigers, where he established himself as one of the best prospects in the world. The Whitehouse, Yukon native scored 41 goals and 129 points in 56 games in his final season with the Tigers.
“I think I can bring some excitement. I’m a pretty smart offensive player and I can make the players around me better,” McKenna said. “I’m confident in my abilities and I’m excited to hopefully make that jump, starting next season.”
McKenna is TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button’s top prospect for the upcoming draft, ahead of Stenberg, Carson Carels, Viggo Björck and Chase Reid.
“I think he is the best player in the draft,” Button said in his latest prospect ranking. “Now we start to think about the Toronto Maple Leafs and what was the biggest absence for Auston Matthews last year? It was the playmaking winger when Mitch Marner left to go to the Vegas Golden Knights. Well Gavin McKenna is a playmaking winger.”
The draft is set for June 26, with the Maple Leafs holding the first-overall pick for the first time since selecting Matthews in 2016.
