Willie Desjardins has always been an intense character behind the bench.
Posted at 12:52 p.m.
Joshua Clipperton
The Canadian Press
From time to time, when he led the Vancouver Canucks from 2014 to 2017, the head coach known for his high level of concentration, cracked a smile when he saw what Henrik and Daniel Sedin – two future members of the Hall of Fame hockey fame – had pulled from their bag of tricks.
Desjardins is experiencing eerily similar moments today watching Gavin McKenna from the same position with the Medicine Hat Tigers in the Western Hockey League.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Willie Desjardins during the PyeongChang Olympic Games in 2018
And he expects Canadian hockey fans to feel something similar when the young forward, expected to be selected first overall in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, wears the red maple leaf at the World Junior Hockey Championship.
“I was like, ‘How do you do it?’ », recounted Desjardins, referring to the Sedin brothers. “That’s what you’re going to get with Gavin… he makes a play and you can only laugh about it. »
The six-foot, 165-pound winger from Whitehorse, who turns 17 on Friday, is the WHL’s leading scorer with 19 goals and 41 assists for 60 points in 30 games.
McKenna still has an eight-point lead in the race, despite having already missed four club games while at the men’s national under-20 team camp.
“The first thing that jumps out at you is how difficult it is to play defense against him,” said Canadian center and Winnipeg Jets prospect Brayden Yager.
“He’s so fast and agile. He’s not very big, but he’s very cunning. »
McKenna learned to leverage his size against older players while growing up in the Yukon capital, looking for the best competition possible.
“Knowing where to be at the right time,” he explains. “You have to play with a little caution. Playing against older, bigger players at such a young age prepares you for this. »
McKenna will leave the North to continue his development at an even younger age than most, living with a host family during the 2021-22 season after signing with a hockey academy in Kelowna, British Columbia, at age 14.
“It was really difficult,” he said. “But my parents came quite often. »
Desjardins first saw McKenna out West before he traveled to Nashville for an exhibition tournament.
“His vision was incredible,” said the Medicine Hat head coach and general manager. “He was making a play and we were like, ‘I can’t believe it. »
Selected first overall by the Tigers in the 2022 WHL Prospect Draft, McKenna scored 97 points in 61 games in 2023-24 – his first full season – to win the WHL Rookie of the Year award. the Canadian Hockey League. He also helped his country win gold at the World Under-18 Championship and the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup.
McKenna is now turning heads with his teammates as they head to the World Junior Championship, which runs from December 26 to January 5 in Ottawa.
Defenseman Tanner Molendyk, a Nashville Predators prospect who plays for the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL, said the opposition is still aware of McKenna.
“He does things that not many people can do,” Molendyk said.
Porter Martone of the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters played with McKenna at the U18 level.
“It’s the ‘wow’ factor that he brings,” noted the forward who should be among the NHL’s top picks in 2025. “You never really know what he’s going to do with the puck. »
Hockey Canada’s Peter Anholt, who runs the country’s under-20 program and is looking to bounce back from last year’s disappointing fifth-place finish, has a pretty good idea.
“When this is all over, Gavin could be our best player…he’s that good,” said Anholt, also general manager of the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the WHL.
“We’ll see if the spotlight bothers him, but my money is on him. »
McKenna hopes to leave a mark on the World Junior Championship like Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, who also represented Canada at an early age during the last two editions.
“I set the bar very high,” said McKenna, a distant relative of Bédard by marriage. “It would be really cool, I hope, to follow in their footsteps.” »
Hockey fans could be talking a lot about Gavin McKenna in the coming weeks.
“He is very young,” warns Desjardins. “But they will see someone who will make plays that a lot of people can’t make. They will see a guy who is always attacking. He is a pretty special player.
“It will be really exciting to see him in this tournament. »
The veteran head coach might even crack a smile from his couch.
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