8 NHL Teams Already Looking Toward Gavin McKenna and 2026 Draft Class
Now that the 2025 NHL draft is in our collective rearview mirrors and this summer’s free agency is all but over with, wouldn’t you say it’s time we start looking ahead to the 2026 draft?
Because we probably should consider the next potentially franchise-altering player at the top of the class, Gavin McKenna.
He has seemingly been on everyone’s radar since he was 15 years old. We realize that’s a pretty bonkers thing to be saying about anyone in their teens, but when you look at the hype being generated surrounding his decision about where he’s going to play next, be it in college hockey or juniors, he’s already a Big Deal.
Every player who has had this kind of hype around them (Connor Bedard, Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, etc.) has had everyone wondering about where he should go and who needs him the most.
Based on how things have gone so far this offseason, we’ve got an idea as to which teams are going to be driving the discussion about where McKenna could be headed as a pro.
Here are the most likely candidates.
San Jose Sharks
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We love what the Sharks have going for them youth-wise. Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, 2025 No. 2 pick Michael Misa, William Eklund, Sam Dickinson...the time for them to surge ahead and take over the NHL is on the horizon, but not immediately so.
There's a good chance these very young Sharks are going to grow even more together yet still not put together enough wins to pull them out of the depths of the league standings. With Gavin McKenna waiting whoever wins the lottery next summer, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world at all for the Sharks.
Take all of those players we've listed and add McKenna to them and then think about where that team would be three, four, five years down the road. If all of them panned out, they'd be a three-ring circus of high-powered offense. San Jose would be must-see TV and everyone on the East Coast would happily sacrifice their sleep to do it.
Boston Bruins
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This will be a dicey season for the Bruins. Was their last-place finish in the Atlantic Division a really big one-year hiccup because of myriad factors or a foreboding sign of things to come for many years? We’re probably going to find out quickly.
Their season has a high boom-or-bust potential, and if it busts, they'll be heavily in the mix to land Gavin McKenna.
Last season got off to a brutal start in part thanks to not signing Jeremy Swayman sooner than a few days before the first game of the season. They also lost Patrice Bergeron to retirement and others to free agency and trades. It culminated in a 70-point season, Jim Montgomery being fired (and then hired quickly by the St. Louis Blues, who he led to the playoffs) and a whole lot of swimming upstream.
Next season sees the Bruins dealing with a lot of similar questions. They haven't made any splash moves and added depth in free agency with Tanner Jeannot, Sean Kuraly and Michael Eyissmont.
Re-signing Morgan Geekie was necessary and expensive, and they'll have to hope top defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm return to their elite levels after dealing with injuries all while being led by first-time NHL head coach Marco Sturm.
Seattle Kraken
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A couple of years ago when the Kraken had a 100-point season and made it to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs after they knocked out the Colorado Avalanche, we all wondered if they were about to go on a Vegas-like tear as an expansion team that figured it out right away.
Two years later, that’s not at all what happened. Now they’re in a perilous position with a roster that's buried in questions.
Like other teams this offseason, the Kraken shook things up by firing coach Dan Bylsma and replacing him with Lane Lambert. They also promoted Jason Botterill to GM, while Ron Francis moved further upstairs in an executive role.
The Kraken added Mason Marchment and Frederick Gaudreau via trade and Ryan Lindgren in free agency, and they're hoping better depth will help pull them up in the Pacific.
If the depth improves and leading players like Matty Beniers, Shane Wright, Vince Dunn and Kaapo Kakko take sizable steps forward with their production while Joey Daccord continues to own the net, they could do well.
That's a lot of qualifiers that need to hit well for success, but for as good as Beniers and Wright have shown, they haven't taken the reins and run with it. If they were able to land Gavin McKenna, however, things could change dramatically.
Detroit Red Wings
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Speaking of teams in a dicey place in their rebuild, here are the Detroit Red Wings.
General manager Steve Yzerman has all the pressure in the world to get Detroit back to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
The team's offseason consisted of adding goalie John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks and mixing in some depth additions in James van Riemsdyk, Mason Appleton and Jacob Bernard-Docker.
Yes, the Wings have a lot of talent with Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider, Patrick Kane, Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat, and they've been close to the playoffs in past years without cracking through, but is Gibson enough to get them over the hump in a wildly competitive Atlantic Division? It doesn't feel like a sure bet as much as it does a long shot.
If the Wings run into the same problems they've had in the past, their depth can't contribute and their up-and-coming players like Marco Kasper and Simon Edvinsson can't take the next step, they could be thinking long and hard about what it would take to get the best odds at Gavin McKenna, especially if McKenna winds up playing college hockey nearby at Michigan State.
Chicago Blackhawks
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Chicago’s lottery win for Connor Bedard sparked a huge reaction, but a second jackpot for Gavin McKenna would generate enough heat to power nations for decades.
Chicago GM Kyle Davidson learned a hard lesson last season in that surrounding a young star like Bedard with a pack of wily veterans doesn't always work out. The team struggled terribly, and it got so rough that people started wondering if Bedard was worth the hype he got as being The Next Big Thing.
This offseason, however, things cooled off in a big way. Chicago re-signed 30-goal scorer Ryan Donato and added Andre Burakovsky and Sam Lafferty in trades. Their one signing so far in free agency was depth forward Dominic Toninato who very well might spend more time in the AHL than the NHL.
By laying low, they've made it clear that they're keeping the road open for younger guys like Kevin Korchinski, Frank Nazar, Sam Rinzel, Oliver Moore and Artyom Levshunov to stake their claims in the NHL. Considering the talent level of all of those players, it'll be exciting to watch. That said, that's a lot of young players who could wind up in the NHL and with that comes a learning curve that can lead to losses being strung together.
If the youth doesn't cause a rocket rise, hey, one more future franchise cornerstone in McKenna couldn't hurt, right?
Pittsburgh Penguins
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We’ve reached the stage in Sidney Crosby’s career where a lot of us are rooting for him to have one more bout of success before retirement. Part of that could be him mentoring Gavin McKenna.
When Crosby entered the NHL in 2005-2006, he was guided in by Mario Lemieux, something that even at the time seemed surreal. One of the greatest players of all-time chaperoning the next league superstar was incredible and when you look back at how bad those pre-lockout Penguins were before Crosby, you almost want to forget about the conspiracy theories about the Penguins winning that leaguewide lottery in 2005.
The current Penguins superstars are all north of 35 years old, and the team hasn't made the playoffs in the past three seasons. Pittsburgh's offseason has been terribly quiet, only adding depth players and draft picks in trades, and the outlook for making the playoffs next season is bleak at best.
They will be a contender for the No. 1 pick and if Gavin McKenna gets to start his career under Crosby's tutelage, it would be one incredible story.
Buffalo Sabres
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When you look at how much high-end talent the Sabres have, the first reaction you should have is that it’s insane we’re throwing them into the race for Gavin McKenna. And you’d be right, too!
However, if you look at how the Sabres did things this offseason and wanted to take the pessimistic viewpoint of it, you'd feel pretty convinced that another long season is in store for Buffalo and the thought of restarting another rebuild with McKenna wouldn't be so bad.
The Sabres dealt JJ Peterka to Utah for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan, traded Connor Clifton and a second-round pick to Pittsburgh for Conor Timmins and a prospect and added depth players in free agency like Justin Danforth and Alex Lyon. They're in limbo (for now) with RFA defenseman Bo Byram who may or may not be traded.
GM Kevyn Adams set out to make the team tougher defensively and harder to play against and they'll most likely be just that, but if the offense stalls out, none of that might matter because then they'll need goaltending to bail them out more often than not. Hoping that Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen rebounds/Alex Lyon steadies them/Devon Levi takes over the net only adds more questions to be answered.
If Buffalo is in the hunt for McKenna by the end of the season, keep Sabres fans in your thoughts because next offseason would be immensely difficult. There's no reason for a team with Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch and Owen Power to be in this discussion, and yet...
Philadelphia Flyers
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A year ago, this might’ve been a lot easier to place the Flyers in this kind of discussion. But now? Well...we'll see.
Rick Tocchet is the new coach, and his Vancouver turnaround suggests the Flyers could dodge the lottery, yet their roster still points to another tough year.
Yes, they've got one of the most exciting young forwards in Matvei Michkov. They've also got outstanding players like Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Jamie Drysdale and added Trevor Zegras via trade. Free-agent signing Christian Dvorak makes them deeper at center, and goalie Dan Vladar gives them someone much more reliable in net.
There's a definitive "wow" factor missing from the offseason, however, despite having Michkov and adding Zegras. This group needs time to mold together under Tocchet, and it will need its goaltending to be massively improved to be able to climb out of the Metropolitan Division basement.
The Flyers have been doing this half-in-half-out kind of rebuild for a couple of years, and with someone like Gavin McKenna waiting, being a lottery team again might not be too bad.
