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Gavin McKenna, Easton Cowan appear on The Athletic’s latest top 100 prospect rankings

Photo credit: Steven Ellis/The Nation Network

By Michael Coyle

Jul 15, 2026, 07:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 15, 2026, 06:44 EDT

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The 2026 National Hockey League Entry Draft is in the books, and by now, most teams have had a chance to see their new crop of prospects that have been added to their organization.

In the Toronto Maple Leafs’ case, they added Gavin McKenna to a prospect pool that had been in dire need of a boost after years of selling off prospects and draft picks with the goal of competing for the Stanley Cup.

In a recent article, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranked the top 100 drafted players who are already a part of NHL organizations. Two Maple Leafs players, including McKenna and Easton Cowan, made Wheeler’s summer edition of his rankings.

The rankings were broken into six tiers: 1-4, 5-28, 29-54, 55-71, 72-88 and 89+. For a player to qualify for the list, the skater must be under 23 and not be fully established with his NHL club.

On Wheeler’s list, McKenna claimed the number one spot. The 18-year-old has instantly become a beacon of hope for Maple Leafs fans, as after a poor 2025-26 season, the NHL lottery landed them someone who has been touted as elite for years.

After spending three seasons lighting up the Western Hockey League with the Medicine Hat Tigers, McKenna transferred to the NCAA to join Penn State and test his talents against better competition. Over 35 games, McKenna recorded 15 goals and 36 assists, leading the Nittany Lions with 51 points.

McKenna is a captivating and supremely gifted winger. His lean build and some bad habits (notably, a need to be more physically engaged and show more effort off-puck/detail) can lessen his shift-to-shift five-on-five impact at times, but the talent and upside are undeniable and unique among the game’s prospects.

He’s a flowing skater with corner speed more than straight-line speed (he lacks explosiveness in straight bursts), great edges and an ability to make plays at whatever pace is required — with a preference for slowing things down, at times to a fault. He’s impressive at carrying and dodging sticks through neutral ice to create entries. He has a first touch like glue, where the puck just lands and sticks to his blade when he’s catching it, even when it’s coming in hot or into compromising positions. He’s an excellent puck transporter and get-out-of-jail-free card who can skate pucks out of the zone himself and relieve pressure, though I’d like to see him be lower for that more often instead of cheating up ice. McKenna is extremely shifty with the puck, blending shoulder fakes into his playmaking. He has impressive maneuverability and adjustability from his hips down. He plays pucks into space and leads guys at an advanced level. He shields pucks well from defenders’ sticks when he can play in open ice and they try to close on him. He’s constantly changing directions and keeping defenders off him. He pre-scans and sees and reads the game at an elite level. The elements of a brilliant perimeter playmaker are all there.

While he’s a playmaker first, he also has scoring elements, has tons of pre-shot deception in his movements and can attack the middle as a passer — though he can also stray to the perimeter against tougher competition. While he’s going to have to fill out and get stronger and be more engaged in battles, working harder on the backcheck and in races to pucks in the D-zone, he does have a good stick defensively when he uses it.

Still, despite some of the flaws in his game, McKenna projects as a first-line star winger and dynamic power-play tactician. Improvement in his five-on-five play and the consistency of his competitiveness will determine his ultimate impact beyond the counting stats he should rack up.

After spending 66 games in the NHL last season, Cowan found himself ranked in tier 5, 70th overall. In 66 games, the 21-year-old picked up 11 goals and 18 assists, including nine points over his final 15 games of the regular season.

Once the Maple Leafs’ season wrapped up, Cowan joined the Toronto Marlies for their upcoming American Hockey League playoffs. Over 22 playoff games, en route to a Calder Cup victory, Cowan totalled eight goals and 10 assists, and played a vital role in bringing the championship to Toronto.

Cowan is a strong skater who buzzes around the ice, works and plays hard, had one of the most accomplished OHL careers individually and team-wise in recent memory, but also comes with some bad habits, poor play selection and hockey IQ questions. Even in his most recent run to a championship with the Marlies, those questions popped up off the puck at times and counter-balanced his production.

He plays a fast, determined game, hunting pucks, winning races and then making little skill plays when opportunities or openings in coverage present themselves. He takes or plays pucks into the middle, thrives in give-and-gos playing off his linemate, supports play defensively and can play in a haze/rush, but has also shown the ability to use and elevate his linemates. He does a good job holding pucks around sticks at speed. He can gain a step on defensemen, and while his effort can sometimes be ineffectively deployed (he has work to do on his routes and decisions on and off the puck), he thrives on instinct more often than it burns him. His overreliance on those instincts does need some coaching at times, but you can live with it.

He plays with a bit of a hunch in his stride, which affects his game both positively and negatively as well. On one hand, he’s always engaged and on his toes because he never straightens up his stance and comes to a standstill, and he’s agile on his first cut/change of direction (less so on his second because of the commitment required). On the other hand, when he really commits to a position into contact or a reach-in, it can put him off-balance.

He projects as a middle-six winger and valuable contributor, even if he’s never going to be a core guy.

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