{"id":659121,"date":"2026-09-10T09:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T09:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/659121\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T09:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T09:09:17","slug":"maple-leafs-top-pick-gavin-mckenna-to-live-with-veteran-john-tavares-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/659121\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs top pick Gavin McKenna to live with veteran John Tavares this season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Gavin McKenna, centre right, is congratulated after being selected No. 1 overall at the 2026 NHL draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs in Buffalo, N.Y. in June.Adrian Kraus\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

John Tavares remembers everything being new.<\/p>\n

Selected first overall by the New York Islanders at the 2009 NHL draft, the star centre and wide-eyed teenager was experiencing countless never-before-seen moments as he started living out his dream.<\/p>\n

The attention. The crowds. The questions. The grind. The adulation. The potential doubts. <\/p>\n

The Toronto Maple Leafs\u2019 veteran, in short, has an inkling of what\u2019s in store for the team\u2019s prized rookie this season. Tavares is now once again looking to pay it forward and make life a little easier for another peach-fuzzed, hockey-playing talent when the puck drops later this month.<\/p>\n

The veteran forward\u2019s family will welcome No. 1 overall pick Gavin McKenna into its home after a discussion with new general manager John Chayka, as the 18-year-old winger from Whitehorse prepares to navigate his first professional season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think back when I was in New York [with the Islanders] and I lived with Doug Weight for a couple years \u2026 being around his family and himself and what that meant to me,\u201d Tavares, the top pick in 2009, said this week at the NHL\/NHLPA player media tour. \u201cYou don\u2019t always realize it at the time, but it just opens your eyes to so many different things. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of attention [McKenna\u2019s] going to receive, hopefully he can come home and can decompress and disconnect \u2026 just be part of that family environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tavares and his teammates endured a disastrous 2025-26 campaign that began with Stanley Cup aspirations before spectacularly careening off a cliff for their first playoff-less spring in a decade.<\/p>\n

Toronto has undergone a boatload of changes top to bottom \u2013 and experienced a stroke of good fortune by landing McKenna \u2013 since limping across the finish line last in the Atlantic Division with a paltry 78 points back in April.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Maple Leaf John Tavares (91) celebrates his overtime game-winning goal against the Buffalo Sabres in a game last season in Toronto.Nick Iwanyshyn\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Tavares, who along with wife Aryne and their children has opened his home to Matthew Knies and Easton Cowan in the past, remains one of the constants. He added there will be benefits for a soon-to-be-36-year-old having the rookie around the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust how they see things, how they play the game, their perspective on things, experiencing things for the first few times,\u201d Tavares, who finished first on the Maple Leafs with 31 goals and second in points with 79 last season, said of having young players in the family fold. \u201cA lot of fun to see that enthusiasm, that energy, that excitement. <\/p>\n

\u201cFull-circle for me to offer that opportunity up.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenna, however, is set for a much different freshman experience in the sport\u2019s biggest market \u2013 along with the added variables that come in the social-media age \u2013 compared to what Tavares went through.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why, even more, I felt like offering up the [living arrangement] if it made sense for him and for the organization,\u201d said the former Toronto captain. \u201cThe attention can be a lot at times, especially just being 18 years old and from a more remote place out in the Yukon.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just want him to go out there and enjoy all the great things about being a Maple Leaf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming off last season at Penn State in the NCAA, McKenna landed in Toronto after the Maple Leafs beat the odds and won the league\u2019s draft lottery.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just want him to be himself,\u201d Tavares said. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why he is who he is and the position he\u2019s in. Doesn\u2019t have to come in and look to change or do a number of different things. Just come in and try to soak it in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the McKenna selection at the draft, Chayka and Mats Sundin \u2013 a franchise legend also hired in the spring as senior executive adviser of hockey operations \u2013 made noise by adding two-time Cup-winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and defenceman Darren Raddysh, along with a major renovation to the forward depth. <\/p>\n

Tavares, captain and former 69-goal man Auston Matthews, and star winger William Nylander remain in the fold as new head coach Jim Hiller \u2013 a Toronto assistant during the Mike Babcock era from 2015 to 2019 \u2013 takes over behind the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just always have faith that we have a really good nucleus of a team,\u201d Tavares said of how he processed the team\u2019s ugly 2025-26 showing. \u201cUnfortunately, last year just went off the rails for us a little bit. As players, you try to take ownership and understand that we have to just do a much better job. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd clearly, we weren\u2019t very good, and it\u2019s resulted in a lot of change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tavares believes those moves put Toronto back into the contender column. Time will tell in an extremely tough Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to go out there and prove and show it,\u201d he said. \u201cYou gotta build it.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those foundation pieces will be found at the Tavares home.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a rookie once in the NHL,\u201d he said of McKenna. \u201cJust enjoy it, be driven, compete your [butt] off, and have fun with it. There\u2019s going to be ups and downs, but that\u2019s part of the journey, part of learning. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to live your dream.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Gavin McKenna, centre right, is congratulated after being selected No. 1 overall at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[462],"tags":[1018,1001,1019,967,991,1020,19,990,1008,1009,1004,992,989,1014,1016,1013,1007,1000,1030,993,994,1006,5,1002,1003,997,1021,998,1025,1026,4,465,466,1028,1023,1027,786,1024,995,1011,1012,333,1010,1022,86,1015,1017,1005,999,996,1029],"class_list":["post-659121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl-draft","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-hockey","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-draft","tag-nhl-entry-draft","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}