Gavin McKenna has barely settled into his first NHL season, yet the conversation around him keeps growing. The No. 1 pick from the 2026 draft is already one of the most discussed players on the Toronto Maple Leafs roster, and not just for what he does on the ice. Toronto has won back-to-back games, beating San Jose 3-1 on October 19 and routing Columbus 6-2 on Tuesday. Ahead of Thursday's matchup against the New York Rangers, analysts are closely watching how the rookie handles everything this city throws at him.
McKenna's NHL Debut Season Is Drawing Serious Attention
Most 18-year-olds arriving as the top pick spend their first few weeks just trying to keep up. McKenna has done more than that. He scored a game-winning goal recently that wasn't just lucky positioning. He drove to the net on his own read, finished, and skated back like it was Tuesday practice. For a kid still learning NHL pace, that kind of decision-making under pressure is not standard.
On the October 22 pregame edition of Daily Faceoff's “The Leafs Morning Take,” hosts Nick Alberga and Matt Larkin broke down what they have seen from McKenna so far.
Alberga opened with this: “On Gavin McKenna, what have you made of the last week? Like Rosie (Jay Rosehill) and I, and others, have been commending how this kid has handled everything, from going first overall, with Justin Bieber announcing Mr. McKenna to the stage, to the benching last week. Like, I think it's been a really good start, all things considered, for Gavin McKenna in the NHL.”
Larkin zeroed in on the goal: “I think so too, and I think he's gaining a lot more confidence, especially with the puck, and when you saw the game-winning goal the other day, that individual effort. That's a play he might not have even tried in his first game, but now he's kind of understanding, okay, he can hang in this league.”
Two weeks in, and he's already attempting things he held back on in game one. That's a fast read.
The Benching Incident Told Analysts More Than the Goals Did
Coach Jim Hiller forgot to put McKenna back into a game last week. Forgot. In Toronto, that kind of thing does not disappear quietly. It gets pulled apart on radio, debated in comment sections, and turned into a referendum on the player, not the coach who made the mistake.
McKenna didn't bite. No sulking, no pointed answers in the media scrum, nothing that fed the cycle.
Larkin noticed: “And Jim Hiller with this unforced error last week where he forgot to put McKenna back in the game. He lost, and it created a media surge of attention, right? And that's just more kind of smothering talk and pressure and attention on McKenna, and it rolled off his back. So to me, that's a crucial test that he passed.”
Larkin also brought up Auston Matthews, specifically how McKenna's temperament tracks closer to Matthews than to others who came through Toronto under similar pressure: “Kind of reminds me of Auston Matthews that way. If you look at the way Matthews and Mitch Marner, obviously on parallel tracks, handle everything, it was so different, and Matthews took things a lot more in stride. I think I see a lot more of him in the way McKenna's handling things.”
Alberga put a sharper point on it: “Especially in a market like this one, and I love the sass that McKenna has shown in the media a bit, always liking to bring up the fact that, you know, it's like the Toronto media getting on me for this and that. He just shrugs it off, and I think you need that type of demeanour if you're going to have success in this market (…) I've been really, really impressed with his maturation.”
The sass part is worth noting. McKenna is not just weathering the attention. He's learned which parts of it to laugh at.
