Medicine Hat HC Willie Desjardins lauds Gavin McKenna’s work ethic: ‘He wouldn’t accept being average’
Medicine Hat Tigers coach Willie Desjardins heaped high praise on Gavin McKenna, the projected first overall pick of the 2026 NHL Draft.
If that is who the Leafs ultimately decide to go with, Desjardins says the Leafs will be getting a player who stops at nothing to be the best he can be with a relentless work ethic.
Desjardins got to coach McKenna from 2022 to 2025 and in that time, he saw the highly touted prospect quickly ascend to become the Tigers’ most important piece. His stay in the WHL may have been brief, but he made the most of it, recording an eye-popping 244 points (79 goals and 165 points) in just 133 games. McKenna’s standout campaign was in 2024-25 when he scored 129 points, outproducing the likes of Connor Bedard and Connor McDavid in their respective pre-draft seasons.
When asked if there was a specific moment that stood out regarding McKenna’s drive to improve, Desjardins recalled an interaction he had with the then-rookie around the Christmas break.
“ He came back at Christmas time, he was about 1.3 points a game and he goes, ‘That’s not good enough. I need to be better than that.’ And then he said, ‘I gotta come in and meet and we gotta do video every day,’ and he did that with my assistant coach, Joel Fraser,” he said. “ Then he went out and skated himself after practice. He didn’t just skate himself a little bit; he skated himself hard, like he skated himself so he was on the ice at the end. And for the month of January, he averaged 2.3 points a game, might have even been higher, and was the leading scorer of the whole league.”
Instead of going back to the WHL to dominate for his draft season, McKenna instead decided to challenge himself by taking his talents to Penn State. There were some initial struggles in the early going which had some fans questioning if he was indeed worthy of going first overall, but McKenna was able to hit a groove in the second half and finish with a team-leading 51 points (15 goals and 36 assists) in 35 games.
Desjardins knows that McKenna’s offensive skills will allow him to jump to the NHL next season, but he can take strides in his defensive game through smart reads and hard work, as his former coach believes he has the tools to do so.
“ He’s been tagged with this exceptional player status for a long time. We’d be on the road, get off the bus, and there would be fans there waiting for him. It’s just different, he’s grown up with it,” he said when asked if McKenna can handle the Toronto market. “ It’s a tough market and there’s lots of older players that just can’t play in that type of market, let alone a young player. You can never tell. You can think people will react in a certain way, it doesn’t mean they will. There’s pressure with it for sure, but I think he’d handle it as well as anybody because I think he’s grown up with it a little bit.”
“ He’s not afraid. He’s not afraid of the limelight. He wants the puck. He wants to do things. You want a guy that wants the puck, and he wants it in all situations.”
PRESENTED BY SUNWING VACATIONS