Well, Leafs Nation is going to have to wait a little bit longer to watch Gavin McKenna in a full game playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's unfortunate.
The Maple Leafs are taking part in their Prospect Challenge this weekend and will be traveling to Gatineau, Quebec to play games against the prospects of the Senators and the Jets as a little bit of a pre-training camp warmup. On Friday morning, the Leafs held their first practice featuring the collection of young players and McKenna was front and center and in the projected lineup. Unfortunately, that is all we're going to see this weekend.
Announced by Toronto Marlies head coach Steve Sullivan after Friday's practice, McKenna will not travel with the team to Gatineau and therefore will not be participating in the prospect games.
Marlies head coach Steve Sullivan confirms Gavin McKenna will not travel to Gatineau for the Prospects Tournament.
— Arun Srinivasan (@Arunthings) September 11, 2026
Sullivan highlights McKenna’s deception, execution and ability to make plays out of structure as key qualities.
Gavin McKenna not participating in Leafs Prospect Challenge
It's just unfortunate. Even if it doesn't really mean all that much in the end, to be so close to watching McKenna go to town on some poor Senators prospects who were just drafted in the fifth round and are heading back to play on a very bad QMJHL team.
But come to think of it, that might be entirely the reason why McKenna is not traveling with the team. Some low-end prospect might just try to win a job by beating up the 2026 first-overall pick -- to go headhunting while he's on the ice and try to show off for his teammates back home or whatever. Outside of any other reason, this has to be just a precaution before Leafs training camp opens up next week and the most hyped-up player since Auston Matthews, is not injured or even just banged up before it gets started.
Leafs preseason starts next Saturday with a split-squad exhibition game against the Canadiens -- one in Toronto and on in Montreal -- and concludes with another split-squad game against the Senators on Wednesday with the same geographical setup.
The safe bet is that McKenna plays on both of those nights, since there are only so many spots if both games are going to be split-squad. So, while it would have been nice to see him score some unreal goals while playing against some lesser prospects this weekend, we will have to wait just one more week to see him in some actual game action.
In the meantime, a whole bunch of highlights during training camp will have to suffice.
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