Heading into the 2022 Western Hockey League prospects draft lottery, prodigy Gavin McKenna of Whitehorse knew he would be going to either the Medicine Hat Tigers, Victoria Royals or Tri-City Americans, which were the only three teams to have a shot at the No. 1 overall pick.
Based on the previous season’s bottom-three placings in the regular season, the Tigers were given six balls in the hopper, the Americans five and the Royals four. It was a franchise-altering moment as the winning ball popped in favour of Medicine Hat, allowing the Tigers to get only the third player to be granted exceptional player status by the WHL (allowing McKenna to play as a 15-year-old) after Connor Bedard and Matthew Savoie.
McKenna, a distant cousin to 2023 NHL top draft-pick Bedard, and the Tigers (5-2-1) play the Royals (3-5) tonight at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The ferry ride and Island rain could have been regular occurrences for McKenna and not just a once-every-two-years thing. But that’s the way the lottery ball bounces.
Not that the Royals are complaining. They landed ultra-promising forward Cole Reschny, considered the future face of the franchise, with the third overall selection in the 2022 WHL prospects draft after the Americans opted for six-foot-three defenceman Jackson Smith, rated 23rd overall in the first round for the 2025 NHL draft by the authoritative Elite Prospects hockey website. Elite Prospects has Reschny rated 44th in the second round for the 2025 NHL draft.
But clearly neither Jackson nor Reschny are in the heady category of McKenna, who will almost surely be the top selection in the 2026 NHL draft. While Reschny and Smith both turned 16 last spring, McKenna won’t turn 16 until Dec. 20, hence his later NHL draft year.
The five-foot-11, 165-pound phenom from the Yukon has five goals and 14 points in eight games this season for the Tigers and McKenna is on pace for 43 goals and 120 points in his official rookie WHL season. That would be comparable to Bedard’s rookie WHL season output of 53 goals and 100 points but Bedard was 16 at the time. Bedard played 15 games as a 15-year-old for the Regina Pats with 12 goals and 28 points. McKenna had four goals and 18 points last season in 16 WHL games as a 14-year-old. Let that sink in.
McKenna was certainly on top of every WHL team’s draft board in 2022 but Royals head coach Dan Price wouldn’t bite when asked Monday: “I won’t ever talk publicly about our draft list, although I do understand the question. We’re really glad we have Cole [Reschny] and I’m very respectful of those other players.”
Not that it would hurt Reschny’s feelings. Everybody knew the pecking order. Reschny and McKenna are good friends, having battled each other coming up, and will likely be Canada teammates at future world junior championship tournaments.
“[McKenna] is obviously an exceptional player — an unreal player who knows how to play the game really well — and we’ve got to play him hard,” said Reschny.
Suddenly up against players three and four years older, Reschny is still finding his footing in his rookie WHL season with a goal and four points in eight games.
“I knew it was going to be tough and it is against guys who are bigger and stronger and faster,” said the Macklin, Saskatchewan, native.
“Getting bigger, stronger and faster in the gym is my goal, too.”
