OTTAWA – The World Juniors can be where stars are born. If you know hockey, you probably already know the name Gavin McKenna. Anyone who didn’t yet is sure to find out now as the youngest member of Team Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship is ready for the bright-shining spotlight.

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The teenage sensation, who just turned 17 a week ago, has been torching the WHL for two years and scored Canada’s first goal in his World Junior Championship debut as the tournament hosts beat Finland 4-0 in their opening game. Already a member of the top-six up front and Canada’s second power-play unit, McKenna did not wait long to make his presence felt.

McKenna scored off of a strong net-front play, trying to beat the goalie with a move first before calmly collecting his own rebound and finding the top of the net. It was a sure-handed, quick reaction play that almost looked like it happened in slow motion even before the TSN replays.

CANADA STRIKES FIRST 🗣️

Gavin McKenna buries his own rebound to give Canada a 1-0 lead.#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/7RwTO9jSBv

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 27, 2024

The native of Whitehorse, Yukon, has been a prominent presence in junior hockey for the last three years, but really has turned heads over the last two. Playing for the Medicine Hat Tigers, including 16 games as a barely 15-year-old in 2022-23, he has laid waste to the WHL with 175 points in 107 games, all before his 17th birthday.

The numbers he has put up rival that of Connor Bedard and are leading to natural comparisons. McKenna, however, is more of a playmaker than a goal scorer with high-end speed and the ability to process the game at a computer-like level. The other difference? He's actually outpacing Bedard at a similar age.

Through 30 games in the WHL this season, McKenna has 60 points as a "draft-minus-one" player, an average of two points per game. The aforementioned Bedard averaged 1.61 points per game at that age. McKenna is currently pacing more like he’s playing in the 1980s where gaudy point totals were the norm. McKenna’s performance this season is very much the exception.

The question now is only how much farther is he going to take this and how many more incredible numbers can he put up.

When Bedard was in his draft-minus-one season, he played for Canada at the World Juniors, putting up eight points in seven games as the Canadians won gold. The following year, Bedard put together a record-setting performance that saw him produce a stunning 23 points in seven games.

In another comparable tournament during which the two played at same ages, McKenna had a Canadian record 20 points in seven games at the IIHF World Men’s Under-18 Championship last spring. In his own draft-minus-two season, Bedard had 14 points. Both were significant pieces for gold-medal teams.

The expectations, because of these exploits at such a young age, are impossibly high. But McKenna, like Bedard before him, seems to defy any sort of expectation or explanation for how much better he can be.

The other interesting wrinkle in these entire few weeks of hockey is that McKenna is playing in this World Juniors in a new era for junior hockey. The NCAA is now going to allow CHL players to play men’s college hockey at the Division I level. McKenna still has another year to go before he can be drafted. And college programs are already circling.

Not only is Gavin McKenna one of the brightest future stars of the game today, he also has a chance to be the biggest blue chip recruit in the history of NCAA hockey.

McKenna has not publicly stated his intentions and anything about him going to college next year is speculative at this point. That said, the way things are setting up, especially with how he is dominating the junior level as he has this season, he’s a prime candidate to test these new waters before he has exhausted his junior eligibility. It’s going to be a fascinating process to follow.

All of that is periphery though. McKenna’s sole focus at the moment is on the here and now and chasing another gold medal to add to what is sure to be a large collection of hardware for him to look back on decades later.

After a tough opening game against Finland, Canada has a couple of weaker foes on their docket. They’ll play Latvia Friday, then Germany on Sunday and then we’ll get the big one everyone is waiting for – USA vs. Canada on New Year’s Eve.

McKenna is going to have a chance to build confidence and get his game dialed in even further before the biggest stage he has played on to date. 

As I said wrote when Connor Bedard was tearing this tournament apart just a few short years ago in Halifax, make sure you watch this young man now. You’re going to want to enjoy him at this level before he’s torching NHL teams on the regular in two years.

This is one of those really special players you’ll want to be able to say you saw way back when.

Gavin McKenna On FloHockey

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Team Canada World Junior Championship Schedule

Thurs., Dec. 26

• Canada 4, Finland 0

Fri., Dec. 27

• Canada vs. Latvia, 7:30 p.m. ET

Sun., Dec. 29

• Canada vs. Germany, 5:30 p.m. ET

Tues., Dec. 31

• Canada vs. USA, 6:00 p.m. ET

Thurs., Jan. 2

• Quarterfinal & Relegation Games, Times TBD

Sat., Jan. 4

• Semifinal Games, Times TBD

Sun., Jan. 5

• Bronze Medal Game, Time TBD
• Gold Medal Game, Time TBD

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