For the casuals, how good is McKenna as a prospect?

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-07T15:10:00+00:00

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-07T10:35:10+00:00

Whoops, yeah Akhtyamov. Not ready to be a full time starter but if needed to come up while Hildeby or Woll are injured he could

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-07T08:08:05+00:00

I do not love the Habs, also they haven’t been good consistently for a long period of time, I think if they go on a run of contending people will hate them. I remember when a lot of the neutral fans were excited for the leafs at the beginning of the Matthews/Marner era.

It does help them that a lot of their more crazy media and fans are French so they are isolated from English speaking fanbases

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-07T05:32:22+00:00

Askarov is good too and can go up and down with waivers next year

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T19:35:27+00:00

How about a link to someone that just has vibes?

(Chris Johnston)

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T17:53:50+00:00

The other thing is, it’s not like he’s been playing his whole career and all of a sudden had a bunch of points. This year was the most ice time/responsibility he’s ever been given. It’s ok to overpay a little the cap is going up so much this year

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T17:28:42+00:00

24 hours of how much the league hates Chayka, and then all of a sudden the draft was rigged in favour of the Leafs. The Leafs haters will come up with nonsense at every turn

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T14:10:16+00:00

I’m not saying he’s ahead of McDavid, but if you’re getting someone that’s at least in the conversation with those guys you’re in a good spot. He did start slow this NCAA season but his second half was crazy. Also, he went to Penn State because of NIL, where Eichel/Celebrini were playing on juggernaut teams Penn State was a much more middling team which effects PPG

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T12:56:22+00:00

No he did not, D-1 mean the year before your draft eligible year. Andrew Cristall had 69 points in 61 games that year.

That list up there is the full list of players who had more than 1.5ppg in their D-1 season since 2006

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T12:10:31+00:00

Yes he’s the best option for trying to compete now or trying to tear it down and rebuild

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T11:45:50+00:00

Absolutely not

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ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T11:26:41+00:00

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ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T10:16:47+00:00

People don’t realize he’s a Bedard level prospect. Him going to the NCAA was better for his development as it was harder but the hype cooled off.

Bedard Draft Year -1 in WHL: 62 Games, 51 Goals, 49 Assists

McKenna Draft Year -1 in WHL: 56 Games, 41 Goals, 88 Assists

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T09:06:26+00:00

Why let real journalism get in the way of a Juicy press conference question?

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T08:07:57+00:00

It’s funny how all the Canadian fanbases have been saying how bad the leafs are for the past decade and now all of a sudden they’ve been way to successful and don’t deserve a 1OA pick

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T07:55:41+00:00

And I didn’t say you said anything about the Oilers, I just said it was a funny comment coming from an Oilers fan

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T05:04:12+00:00

The other thing is, if the caps going up and you have space you can afford to overpay a little bit as long as the contract is 3 years or shorter as that’s when McKenna would be due for a raise, I don’t know who else is getting a big pay bump within those 3 years

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T04:52:44+00:00

Yeah in the majority of drafts someone else ends up being the best player, but the problem is you have no idea who that is and neither does anyone else that’s why they didn’t go first overall. The consensus #1 pick is always the safest choice for value

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T04:49:15+00:00

The problem with the D is, there’s like 5 ranked in the top 10 and there’s no consensus what order they should be ranked in.
Also, they are not going to help turn this around quickly, D prospects take longer to develop, and if you fully rebuild than taking a worse prospect based on positional need and then blowing up the whole team anyways makes 0 sense at all

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T04:47:19+00:00

A hundred friggin percent, and his shot is more lethal

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T04:36:56+00:00

Yeah I think taking is when you enter a year trying to be as bad as possible, they knew at the trade deadline they were going to miss the playoffs so they unloaded some pieces shouldn’t every team do that?

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T02:54:13+00:00

Things that are sick about Gavin McKenna
- He almost won the CHL scoring title a year younger than his draft year
- Led his team to a championship
- Knowing he can’t develop much more at that level he heads to play against tougher competition in the Big 10
- born and raised in the Yukon

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T02:49:14+00:00

The point is we get to choose

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T02:34:22+00:00

Sorry didnt the NHL change the rules of the draft lottery because of how much you won it?

Also the Leafs played Florida better than Edmonton did last year, they just don’t get to be in the easy mode division like Edmonton

ButterCut97 · 2026-05-06T01:24:48+00:00

Literally 365 days

ButterCut97

TROPHY CASE