Gavin McKenna Underwhelms And Other NHL Prospect Storylines

A couple of months into the season, it’s much clearer which NHL teams’ poor starts are looking more like lost seasons.

Hockey operations staff and fans of bottom-dweller teams may already be inclined to pay attention to NHL draft prospects as opposed to their own team’s on-ice results.

One thing is very clear about the 2026 class: it will be interesting. There are numerous storylines and the potential for many sharp risers and fallers. Here are just a few over the recent weeks.

Gavin McKenna’s Woes Continue

When prominent internet draft scout Will ‘Scouching’ Scouch declared that Gavin McKenna wasn’t his No. 1 guy for the 2026 draft in October, let alone in his top three, scouts and fans were left aghast.

How could Gavin McKenna, who scored 20 points over seven games at the World Men’s Under-18s in 2024, scored 129 points in the WHL last year, led his team to a league championship and even made Team Canada’s world junior team as a 17-year-old, not be first overall caliber?

There have certainly been many sticking points to start his draft campaign. He’s being physically bullied at the NCAA level. He’s been cheating for offense constantly and just hasn’t been as dominant as many would’ve expected coming into this season, with four goals and 15 points in 14 games.

For most of the season, he’s been playing on Penn State’s second line, as coach Guy Gadowsky has preferred to keep his existing top-producing line of Carolina Hurricanes prospect Charlie Cerrato and undrafted free agents JJ Wiebusch and Matt DiMarsico. McKenna, on the other hand, has been with Ben Schoen (five points in 14 games) and San Jose Sharks prospect Reece Laubach (eight in 14).

Last weekend, however, Gadowsky put the lines in the blender to try to jolt the team and his young star. 

In the first match against the Michigan Wolverines, McKenna was slotted with Cerrato, who had a team-leading 18 points in 12 games going into the game, and ex-WHLer Shea Van Olm, who had one point in 12 games at the time. 

McKenna finished the game with a minus-4 rating and no points. He then dropped to the third line for the rematch to re-unite with Laubach, albeit now being centered by undrafted free agent Dane Dowiak. McKenna picked up an assist in the match, which came off a teammate picking up his missed empty-netter attempt.

Projected first overall picks have slid down before in recent years. Fellow exceptional status talent Shane Wright slid to the Seattle Kraken at fourth overall in 2022, and James Hagens fell to seventh to the Boston Bruins in 2025.

When fellow draft eligibles, such as Michigan’s Adam Valentini and Miami’s Ilia Morozov, aren’t far behind in points, it only adds weight to the arguments against McKenna.

There’s no denying that McKenna has the upside and skill, especially playmaking, that you’d value in a high pick. He’s still producing at a rate higher than Seattle’s Matty Beniers (2nd overall in 2022), Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk (4th overall in 2018) and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Kent Johnson (5th overall in 2022) in their respective draft years. That’s incredible company, but a far cry from the 71-point campaign of current Vegas Golden Knight Jack Eichel and the 65-point campaign of Columbus’ Adam Fantilli. Not to mention that McKenna is currently projected to underproduce the draft year campaign of the Minnesota Wild’s 12th overall pick in 2024, defenseman Zeev Buium. 

For Ivar Stenberg, Ethan Belchetz, Keaton Verhoeff or any of the other names projected at the top of the draft boards, McKenna’s newfound fallibility has to be extra motivation every night as the race for first overall is starting to enter open season.

Prospect Power Rankings: Michigan State Takes Over
The current top junior and college hockey teams across the continent, from an NHL prospect perspective, include a new No. 1 squad and some players who are on fire lately.

Prospect Without A Home

The last name Hemming may sound familiar in the prospect world.

Dallas Stars first-rounder Emil Hemming is off to an incredible start to his second OHL season with 15 points through eight games with the Barrie Colts. But there happens to be another Hemming of note, and it’s his brother, Oscar.

The 6-foot-4, 194-pound Finn decimated his country’s U-18 circuit last season, notching 35 goals and 63 points over 31 games. He also played in 18 games with Kiekko-Espoo’s U-20 team, scoring 10 points, which ranked him third among 2026 eligibles with at least 10 games played. He ran up the tally in the playoffs, adding nine points in 13 games. 

Add a big Hlinka Gretzky Cup this August, where he led Finland with four goals and six points, and his season was enough to land him 21st on The Hockey News’ Ryan Kennedy’s early draft ranking in October. 

However, that was the last we saw of him in game action, with no injury in sight. The reason? Contractual issues.

Hemming had previously signed a deal with his Finnish mother club Kiekko-Espoo that had kept him through the 2025-26 season. However, when the Kitchener Rangers selected the Finn in the CHL import draft, he had decided to continue his career in North America with his parents terminating his contract as he’s under 18 years of age. However, his Finnish club instead has pursued legal options, challenging the release and putting Hemming in limbo – unable to join the Rangers.

Emming tried to go to the unsanctioned BCHL in October, officially signing with the Sherwood Park Crusaders on Oct. 23. However, Hemming is reportedly at risk of a three-year ban from the IIHF if he decides to play in the league despite his existing contract in Finland. Hemming has since returned to Kitchener.

While he’s waiting for an official ruling, Waterloo Region Record reporter Josh Brown noted that Hemming is fast-tracking his schooling so that he can be ready for NCAA action as soon as the New Year. So far, he’s been linked to Boston College since at least late October.

As of right now, things are still very much up in the air for the young forward. The next two months should provide some clarity for Hemming’s future.

2026 NHL Draft Notebook: First-Round Candidates Bjorck, Smits And Suvanto Impress Early In Europe
If you don’t know about Viggo Bjorck, Alberts Smits and Oliver Suvanto, you may hear their names called in the first round of the 2026 NHL draft. They each impressed in a recent game as Tony Ferrari opens his scouting notebook.

Small Goalies Providing Big Solutions

As teams have drifted toward drafting taller and taller players, especially with goaltenders, 2026 will be an inflexion point. Just how much are teams willing to bias toward size over talent? 

Last year, we got a little taste of that, with the 5-foot-11 Jack Ivankovic sliding to the Nashville Predators at 58th overall despite having a strong OHL campaign, historic performances at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and U-18 tournaments and even backing up Team Canada at the world juniors.

This year, a bunch of the crop’s top-performing goaltenders are undersized by modern standards.

The six-foot William Lacelle leads the QMJHL’s first-year NHL draft eligibles with a .919 save percentage over 15 games with the Rimouski Oceanic. In the OHL, it’s Ottawa 67’s netminder Ryder Fetterolf, who stands at 5-foot-11 and is rocking a .928 save percentage over 13 games. Also standing just shy of six-feet is the WHL’s leader, Tri-City Americans’ starter Xavier Wendt, with a .918 save percentage through 12 games at 5-foot-11.

All three of these goalies share the same archetype. They are small, albeit hypermobile, goaltenders who can bail themselves out when their positioning goes awry. This goalie style has found some success recently, with Calgary Flames starter Dustin Wolf at six-feet and Colorado Avalanche prospect Ilya Nabokov at 6-foot-1. 

However, Wolf wasn’t taken until the seventh round in his draft year despite having an otherworldly .936 save percentage while playing 61 games – all but seven. And Nabokov? He wasn’t taken until three years after he was first eligible, after posting a breakout .930 save percentage in the KHL with Metallurg Magnitogorsk. He led the team to a Gagarin Cup with a .942 save percentage, winning playoff MVP honors.

If Nabokov and Wolf stand as recent examples of the height bias starting to disappear, the 2026 NHL draft will be the litmus test.

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