NEWS FILE PHOTO
With Gavin McKenna leaving the Medicine Hat Tigers to play NCAA hockey at Penn State University, the WHL Champions will lean on their young roster featuring Markus and Liam Ruck and Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll. The trio are pictured stretching during warmups ahead of a 10-1 win at Co-op Place over the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers found ways to win games last season en route to a sixth Ed Chynoweth Cup. They’ll look to find a way through the subtraction of the best junior hockey player in the world.
Tigers forward Gavin McKenna announced Tuesday afternoon on ESPN’s Sportscenter that he will be leaving the Western Hockey League for the NCAA and Penn State University.
McKenna is the third player the Tigers have lost to the NCAA rule change, with forwards Cayden Lindstrom (Michigan State University) and Ryder Ritchie (Boston University) previously committing to schools.
“It was a super tough decision, there’s a lot of great options out there, but I think me, my family and everyone that is part of my circle, we all decided the best spot for me next year will be Penn State University,” McKenna said on ESPN’s Sports Center on Tuesday.
“Penn State is a great spot for me, I got to get a taste of what it’s like there and got to bring along my dad and we both thought it was a great spot for me.”
All three of Lindstrom, Ritchie and McKenna are hard losses Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins says. They built a team focused on the window around McKenna, one that would find a peak this season before he is to be selected first overall in the 2026 NHL Draft.
“Any player we’ve lost it’s hard to lose them, we honestly had built a team that I thought had a really good chance of winning the Cup this year,” Desjardins said. “Saying that we’re going to have to find a way to do it. We’re not going to be satisfied with being average, we’re going to have to find a way to be a good team again with our back end, I think we can do that.
“But with Gavin, you can never take a guy like that out of your lineup and have it not be a big loss. You can say whatever you want, it’s a huge loss.”
As all championship rosters endure, the offseason has seen a pile of losses for the Tigers, especially up front, with the NCCA departures, the graduation of forwards Mat Ward, captain Oasiz Wiesblatt and the potential loss of overage forwards Hunter St. Martin and Andrew Basha who have signed NHL contracts with the Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames respectively and can play pro hockey next season.
“The NCAA rule change probably couldn’t have caught us at a worse time with the group that we assembled,” Desjardins said. “The thing is, whatever life gives you, you have to make it work. These players, they all had a decision to make, they had a look at what they had offered and what was there and they made that decision. Now we have to find a way, too. We want to go on another run, and we have to find a way to do that.”
Desjardins says they had other players on their 2025-26 roster who were offered NCAA opportunities, full rides to schools, and didn’t take them, opting to return to Medicine Hat. He says they’re proud of the group they have and he says their younger players will get a chance they might not have before.
“We found ways to win games last year that were challenging games, but guys found a way to win them and it’ll be the same thing this year,” Desjardins said. “We’ve got a challenge thrown to us right at the start, we know where we’re at and it’s exciting.
“What does it mean, it means more opportunity for the Rucks and for Gordon-Carroll, we have some other high end guys coming in, Kadon McCann, it’s a great opportunity for him. So it’s not like there’s not benefits in it. It’s hard to lose those guys, but it certainly gives other guys that we have, who want to be here, opportunities.”
They’ve singed eight players this offseason, seven who played in the United States last season in: forwards Gavin Kor (2007), Kade Stengrim (2007), Noah Davidson (2008), Jaxson Craig (2009), Owen Hayes (2009), defenceman Kyle Heger (2007) and goaltender Carter Casey (2007).
They also announced the signing of 2009-born defenceman Luke Warrener on Tuesday, the 36th pick in the 2025 WHL Draft.
The NCAA Div. I Council voted last November to lift the previous restriction that barred CHL players from playing college hockey due to its amateur status rules, and will allow those playing major junior hockey to make the switch to U.S. college hockey as of Aug. 1.
The three Tigers aren’t the only WHL players making the jump, McKenna will be joined by Tri-City Americans defenceman Jackson Smith, and the Victoria Royals saw forward Cole Reschny and 16-year-old Keaton Verhoeff commit to the University of North Dakota. Former Tiger Tomas Mrsic, who went the other way in the Tigers trade for Ritchie, has committed to Colorado College.
Desjardins is proud of the WHL and the Tigers for the success they had last season. He says the league will have to look at the departures but he believes the WHL will be OK.
“Commissioner Dan Near does a great job leading our league, he does a really good job, he was active in talking to the McKenna family. Our league is on top of it, they’re doing their reading. But one of the big problems is lots of times right away, pastures look greener, and over the next year or two years, we’ll kind of see where it’s at. It’s not necessarily that it is. But right now, nobody knows. So we’re going to find out over the next couple years exactly where things are at.”
