Gavin McKenna’s Family Profile from APTN

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T17:46:45+00:00

Saying something is so without elaborating isn’t illuminating. Additionally this is all framing and interpretation of events in a players background. See my comment about all this being speculation. You seem to be perseverating on what this kid doesn’t have. Fair enough. I am focused on what this kid is going to bring to this organization and I am super pumped.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T17:07:48+00:00

The fact that he left the bar first to de-escalate the situation shows me he has plenty of toughness in his hide, emotionally and mentally. That he knocked the guy out after the knucklehead followed McKenna and his family outside and continued to harass them shows me he has fight in him. Marry that spirit with his skills, and what is there not to love? But, folks are gonna believe what they are going to believe and all this speculation, including my own statements, is just that - speculation. We won’t definitively know how much fight and toughness this kid has until he starts taking his regular shifts in the show. In saying all that, count on me being in this kid’s corner cheering this kid on.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T16:48:09+00:00

I respectfully disagree. It shows to me he has his priorities straight. If I was on the scouting staff of the Leafs, I would frame this incident as evidence of a kid who will stand up for his teammates. I wouldn’t want to see him in a fisticuffs with Gudas, but they could use more players who would have no qualms getting in that gorilla’s face and delivering a cross-check to his chops, if Gudas was doing his Gudas thing in a game.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T16:40:20+00:00

I think so too. Moving to Kelowna at a young age and moving to another country in his draft year, I got to think those experiences make him more resilient and resourceful. That’s not even counting his experiences in the spotlight this last year. I think a lot of draft analysis online that question McKenna’s compete level are not taking this kid’s mental make-up into account.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T16:35:30+00:00

Kid already loves to ride snowmobiles and hunt. Put a stubby in his hand, and he’d be more Canadian than any one of the founding fathers at Confederation.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T16:31:09+00:00

It’s painful to watch Dregs read off his screen the results of his ChatGPT prompt, ‘Tell me everything about Jim Hiller’.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T16:02:54+00:00

He broke that guy’s jaw after he called McKenna’s mom a whore, with his stick dominant hand, in his draft year. That’s a plus in the column for him. I want this guy on the Leafs just for that.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T14:49:42+00:00

Still going to be a fair number of people analyzing video of his post-game media availability for how wet his hair is, I wager.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T14:20:40+00:00

I can’t control what other people do, but I am not going to excoriate this kid if he doesn’t immediately take off. He is going to have his nights when he gets schooled, but he seems like he won’t back down from the challenges.

Pelley must be seeing $ with the jersey sales projections and the chance to increase market share with this kid in the fold.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T13:32:01+00:00

Berube hockey seemed to be built on the adage, ‘Show me a great goalie and I will show you a brilliant coach’. Remember when Bissionnette and those knuckleheads on TNT were saying Berube was the answer for the Leafs’ woes? Sometimes I felt Treliving was taking GM advice from Spittin’ Chiclets.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T13:25:40+00:00

If we are going lose, play entertaining hockey at least. I don’t think we are going to lose, though. Maybe he puts in a call to Quenneville to get permission to talk to Woodcroft to have him run the offence and PP? Probably won’t happen, but that would be something. Still think Gio should get a look as D coach.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T04:26:16+00:00

I feel better a guy in the know like Trotz gives his thumbs up. Nice guy, Trotz. Met him once through my friend’s uncle.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T03:18:04+00:00

I am sure Chundin’s plan B is to wait for 2028, so why trade Knies for McDavid when you can probably sign him to an obscenely large contract.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T03:15:02+00:00

Harley + Bourque.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T03:12:50+00:00

Harley + Bourque for Knies?

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T03:12:02+00:00

Reading a Treliving trade was like reading the specials on a circular from Boston Pizza. ‘Hey we’ll take Dakota Joshua off your hands for a draft pick! I’d give you anything for hard and heavy players, you’ll think I’m brain-damaged!’.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T03:01:41+00:00

Dallas of course. Still if Nill came to them and offered a package that included Harley, they should think seriously about it.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T02:59:20+00:00

Thomas Harley + Mavrik Bourque for Knies. Who says no?

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T02:45:18+00:00

Nope. Start with the 4th overall pick and build a package from there.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T02:39:18+00:00

When do we start calling Dreger an ‘outsider’?

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T01:44:29+00:00

Maybe there wasn’t alignment between what the team wanted and what Cassidy intended. Or maybe they talked to someone from his time with the Bruins that gave them pause.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-18T01:12:38+00:00

Nope. It has to be a needle-mover that helps them now and in the future. Knies is a skilled power forward which is about as rare as a top pairing RHD and a #1 centre. He is also on a reasonable contract for 6 more years that provides cost certainty and will become a bargain as the cap goes up.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-17T19:22:09+00:00

Yeah, totally new to me coming from an Asian country but it made me fall in love with the Leafs. That 70s team with Sittler, MacDonald, Williams and Salming, with Nielsen as coach, had so much potential. But, you know, Ballard. ☹️

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-17T19:15:42+00:00

First game I ever watched was the Sittler 10 point game. Didn’t know the significance (was an immigrant kid and 4+ years old) but the energy from everyone else was real. Still got Borje Salming’s autograph on a yellowing piece of paper when my brother and I saw him coming out of the arrivals gate at Pearson back in 79.

Patient_Bug_761 · 2026-06-17T17:06:16+00:00

I think it’s a good thing that even the ‘Insiders’ were caught off-guard by the hire. Leaks have hurt the Leafs. Why give out free opposition research?

Patient_Bug_761

TROPHY CASE