NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna makes a chip pass with three Swift Current defenders in front of him in the third period of a 5-4 Game 3 loss Tuesday to the Broncos.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Gavin McKenna is making the most of his playoff spotlight.
The Medicine Hat Tigers forward sits atop the WHL scoring race heading into playoff action Friday, with two goals and 14 points through four games of the first-round series with the Swift Current Broncos.
It is production McKenna takes pride in, and he credits his line with captain Oasiz Wiesblatt and Minnesota Wild prospect Ryder Ritchie for the success.
“Playoffs is hardest hockey the year and some people shy away,” McKenna said. “With Wiesblatt, me and Ritchie, we have been playing pretty well together and we’ve been clicking when we needed to and stepped up with some big games.”
The Whitehorse, Yuk. product’s 14 points leads all CHL players in the playoffs, his 12 assists also leading the way among WHL, OHL and QMJHL players. His regular season point streak of 40 games has continued through the playoffs, sitting at 44 games entering Game 5 Friday at Co-op Place.
His 40-game regular season streak was the second-longest duration since 2000, trailing only Alexander Radulov who went 50 straight games with a point in the 2005-06 season.
Looking at the longest point streak in the CHL since 2000, including the postseason and Memorial Cup, McKenna sits third. Radulov’s 50-game streak is first, Brad Richards of the Rimouski Oceanic had a 45-game streak from Dec. 10 1999 to May 28, 2000.
McKenna is the projected first overall pick in the 2026 NHL draft, already on the radar of scouts and the NHL’s Central Scouting.
“His trajectory is generational because when you compare where he is at the same age to some of these other players we’ve seen progress and get to the NHL as 18-year-olds and have an impact, he’s on that same path,” Central Scouting associate director David Gregory told NHL.com “When you think of the key skills you have to have in the NHL … you have to be smart, you have to be able to skate and you have to be able to compete. Those three important skills are maybe his three best skills, so we’re not even talking about how great his hands are.
“We don’t use the term five-tool player in hockey as much as you hear it used in other sports, but McKenna’s one of those guys. He’s got it.”
McKenna was named to the CHL Team of the Month for a fourth time in March, the most of any player in the CHL this season. He was the WHL’s player of the month for March, the second time this season he received the honours.
TSN’s director of scouting Craig Button was featured in a video by the network on Thursday comparing McKenna to Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov while also describing what makes the 17-year-old so special. He calls the Tigers star “dangerous” and “unstoppable.”
“He has this fantastic imagination, this great creativity, but he operates within the space and the opportunities,” Button said on Sports Centre.
“If you’re a teammate looking at him, you better be ready, you better be ready for anything because Gavin McKenna can do anything. As a defender it’s so difficult because he does things you don’t think he can do, you don’t think are possible. That’s the thing about Gavin McKenna as well, he doesn’t see anything that’s impossible…”
— with files from TSN, NHL.com
