Gavin McKenna did not hit the scoresheet in Saturday’s scrimmage at Toronto Maple Leafs development camp as his Team White fell 6-4 to Team Blue.
“Tough loss, but it was fun to get out there and to play a game in the middle of the summer,” the first-overall pick in last week’s draft said. “It was very competitive and [there were] lots of plays being made, so it was a good time.”
“Probably in a game like this today you’re not seeing how good he can be,” pointed out Leafs assistant general manager (player development) Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser, who oversaw the camp. “It’s just difficult in this scenario.”
The pace of the scrimmage, which featured three 25-minute runtime periods, did not allow McKenna to flash his high-end skill quite as much, but the 18-year-old winger still found other ways to stand out.
“Just my compete,” McKenna highlighted. “I’ve said it before, but being in this environment and having every other guy competing, I think it just pushes you to compete. [I’m] very fortunate to be in this environment. I think it’s helping me in the long run and I can already feel it. I’m working harder out there and I feel better.”
McKenna made some nice moves to maintain possession during a 6-on-5 sequence, which led to a goal late in the final frame. He also got loose for a breakaway chance earlier in the scrimmage.
“He’s been through a lot in the last month and I thought he did a great job throughout the week,” Wickenheiser reviewed. “You can see the skillset is evident, his thinking, his ability to process, some of the small plays that he makes out here. Just overall he’s done a great job of handling himself. Now he has to go and get some rest and then train and be ready for main camp. But it’s a lot for a young kid like that in these last few weeks and he was really good.”
McKenna has no plan to wind down in the coming weeks, at least when it comes to hockey. Instead, the Penn State product wants to build momentum.
“It’s been super busy and, honestly, this is the least I’ve been on the ice in an entire summer just with how busy I’ve been,” he said. “So, I want to get right back into it. Itching to get skating and get competing. I had a good taste of it today and this week but, yeah, I want to get back out there. I’ll be training hard.”
Wickenheiser revealed that McKenna was so eager to get on the ice that he requested a 1-on-1 session with her before development camp even started.
“It’s a huge summer for me and [I’m] just going to try and take it day by day,” McKenna said. “Every single day is a day to get better. So, like I said, big summer and I gotta be dialled in.”
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It’s been a magical week for McKenna, who signed his three-year, entry-level contract on Friday with his parents Willy and Krystal watching.
“It means the world to me,” he said. “It’s a big step in my career so to have my family there and experience it with them, it was pretty special. It’s something that I’ve been working towards my whole life. You got the draft and then pen to paper, it’s all coming together and it’s been an amazing time.”
McKenna’s Toronto adventure started last Saturday when he threw out the first pitch at a Toronto Blue Jays game.
“When I walk out there in front of 40,000 people all cheering you on, it was pretty special,” he said.
The kid from Whitehorse enjoyed “how cool the environment is” around Canada’s largest city this week.
“Obviously it’s a little different right now with the World Cup and stuff, but it’s been amazing,” he said. “I got to go to a couple World Cup games, go to a Jays game and just seeing the city and the buzz around the city, it’s been amazing. Yeah, I can’t wait to finally call this place home.”
McKenna’s favourite moment during the week came on Thursday night when he attended the round-of-32 match between Portugal and Croatia at Toronto Stadium.
“It was an insane game,” he said. “We had Drake four suites down from us ... when that [Croatian] goal got called off, it was ridiculous in there, so a really cool environment.”
Did he make eye contact with Drake?
“I tried to wave,” McKenna said with a smile. “He didn’t see it.”
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McKenna’s week also included a phone call with newly-signed Leafs goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who also wears No. 72.
“He texted me and we chatted on the phone,” said McKenna, who was still sporting 72 in Saturday’s scrimmage. “Yeah, any time you got a guy like that coming in who’s been in the league for that long, won two Stanley Cups, I’m not going to take his number, so it was pretty easy for me to just give it to him. I think he’s a staple in this league so, as an 18-year-old kid you’re not going to take his number.”
McKenna’s preferred back-up choices, 9 and 27, are both retired by the Leafs. So, after some deliberation, he’s decided to go with No. 92.
“Nine and 27 are up in the rafters and wanted to have a little bit of both in there so 92,” he explained. “Nine replacing the seven.”
McKenna will be the fourth player to wear No. 92 with the Leafs, following in the footsteps of Alexander Nylander, Igor Ozhiganov and TSN Hockey analyst Jeff O’Neill.
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McKenna played Saturday’s scrimmage on a line with Rogle centre Tinus Luc Koblar, a second-round pick (64 overall) last year, and Owen Sound Attack forward Harry Nansi, who was a fifth-round pick (153 overall) last year.
“Gav, he sees the ice very well, so if you’re open, you know you’re going to get that puck on your stick,” Nansi said. “He’s highly skilled and I was fortunate enough to play with him today.”
Nansi, who stands 6-foot-3, 179 pounds, scored a goal and earned a positive review from Wickenheiser.
“Harry’s been our most improved prospect,” Wickenheiser declared. “He’s very gifted physically. I don’t know if he’s realized, himself, how strong he can be. There’s a couple plays down low here where I was thinking, ‘Just take it to the net,’ and he deferred to a pass. Those are just little areas where I think that’s the next level for him, but we’re very excited about the player he can be. His skating still has a ways to go, but it’s come a long way.”
Nansi spent all of last summer working on his skating with Leafs consultant Paul Matheson.
“I’ve improved in puck battles,” Nanis noted. “My skating has helped me be more stable on the ice and get knocked down less in the corners.”
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Nansi did get bowled over by Notre Dame winger William Belle in the final seconds of the scrimmage, which led to an empty-net goal.
“Before the game he said he was going to try and find me,” Nansi said with a smile. “Just a thick, thick guy out there. Like, you know when he’s out there you gotta keep your head up and make sure he doesn’t get you like he did with me.”
Belle, a fifth-round pick by the Leafs last year (137 overall), is an imposing figure at 6-foot-4, 218 pounds, and did not hesitate to throw his weight around despite it being a summer scrimmage.
“William Belle out there is making some hits,” Wickenheiser said. “He’s finishing every check, which is kind of what he has to do. [We] encourage the players to, ‘Play to your identity, be who you are,’ but obviously there’s a line in the summertime that you want to be careful. But I thought they [all] did a really good job of playing hockey.”
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Koblar, who led Norway in scoring during a run to the bronze medal at the recent IIHF World Championship, fit in well beside McKenna.
“It’s easy to play with such guys and you can just read off of them and what they’re going to do and go up in open space and he’ll find you,” Koblar said. “It was amazing playing with him.”
“You can see the separation that him and Gavin have and the way they think,” Wickenhesier said. “They played that pro game in the World Championships. He’s a bit of a man out here. You can see that, and so it’s just about building on that. I thought he did a good job throughout the whole week.”
Koblar will spend the next week in Toronto working more with the team’s development staff. Of course, he’ll be glued to the television for Norway’s round-of-16 match in the World Cup against Brazil on Sunday.
“If they play as they have been doing this tournament I think they can beat them,” Koblar said. “It’s been amazing. I kind of can draw some comparisons to us in the World Championship. They are doing the same journey and they can go far.”
So, does Koblar see himself in the Erling Haaland role for Norwegian hockey right now?
“No, I don’t know,” he said quickly with a smile. “He’s an amazing player. He’s already at the top. I’m just starting my career.”
Norway’s third-place finish at the Worlds marked their first ever medal at the event.
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Guelph Storm centre Tyler Hopkins, a third-round pick last year (86 overall), scored a goal and added an assist in Saturday’s scrimmage.
“The nerves haven’t really hit as much as they were the first time,” the 19-year-old from Campbellville, Ont. said. “I feel a little bit more confident on the ice with the puck on my stick and making plays.”
Hopkins also scored on a smooth move in the shootout game at the end of the scrimmage.
“He is a really smart, cerebral player,” Wickenheiser said. “He is here every day training in our facility. The big thing for most of these guys is strength and physical fitness to build on the foundations that they have. Expect him to have a good season next year with Guelph hosting the Memorial Cup as well.”
Hopkins confirmed he plans to train out of the Leafs facility throughout the rest of the summer.
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This marked the third Leafs development camp for Miroslav Holinka, but it’s the first time the 2024 fifth rounder (151 overall) felt comfortable enough to step in front of the cameras for a scrum with reporters.
“Practising on my hockey performance, but my English is not pretty good, but is a little better than last year or years ago,” the 20-year-old from Czechia said. “Like a person, like a player, I want to be better.”
How does the Edmonton Oil Kings forward work on improving his English?
“I try watch everything in English and I have a couple friends from Oil Kings so I try to call them every second day,” he said. “I try, but it’s hard ... My best friend is my billet brother, Gavin Hodnett, [Oil Kings] captain, so I call with him, like, every week.”
One of his other friends from the Oil Kings is defenceman Ethan MacKenzie, who was drafted in the third round by the Leafs (69 overall) on Saturday.
“Our first year, when he came, he barely could speak any English,” MacKenzie told TSN in a recent interview. “It was a couple sentences at a time and you had to be pretty slow and methodical the way you talk to him. But over the past couple of years, we got super close and his English got a lot better and we just were able to joke around and just have a great time. I loved every second being with him so I’m super pumped to be able to play with him again.”
Holinka got into one game with the Toronto Marlies in the American Hockey League after the Oil Kings season ended. His goal is to make the Marlies next season.
“I really like Miro,” Wickenheiser said. “You can see he’s a smart player. He had a really good year with Edmonton. We were working with Miro just on pace, skating, and getting physically ready and prepared to play with the Marlies next year. But he is a smart hockey player. He made some nice plays out here today. We really like him.”
Holinka produced 80 points in 59 games in the Western Hockey League last season.
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Leafs senior executive advisor Mats Sundin addressed the prospects as part of the development camp.
“He said that when his family came over here there was no hockey on the TV, no talking about hockey, because he was just doing his job,” relayed defenceman Victor Johansson, whose father played with Sundin on Djurgardens in the Swedish Hockey League during the 1989-90 season. “That’s one of the things [that resonated is that] outside of the rink you’re a person and you have other stuff to do and when you come here you do your job.”
Alexander Bilecki, who was a second-round pick (60 overall) in last week’s draft, called it a “whirlwind moment” when Sundin called to welcome him to the organization. What did he take from the Hall of Famer’s hot-stove discussion at development camp?
“He told us a lot about his career and how ritualistic he was,” the Kitchener Rangers defenceman said. “It’s all about routines and setting goals and sticking to them but also being structured and having a thorough plan. [It’s] about how you go about your days and being a pro, really, and that’s something we can all learn from and take from him and use it in our careers.”
Sundin, who played 13 seasons with the Leafs, also hit on the theme of teamwork.
“Mats’ message was a lot around the ability to make your teammates better,” Wickenheiser said. “How can I make my teammates better? How can I make myself better? But then also the ability to come and work very hard at what you’re doing and then be able to shut it off and rest when you leave the rink. So, the consistency that comes with that and having a long career, I would say those are his two messages.”
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The Leafs signed defenceman Emil Andrae to a two-year contract, which carries a $1.55 million annual average value. The 24-year-old Swede had been a restricted free agent.
The team plans to hold a Zoom session for reporters with Andrae next week. He has not spoken to the media since being acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers on June 16.
