The Maple Leafs had no control over Gavin McKenna's eye-opening week
Photo credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Gavin McKenna logged 17 hours of ice time in a single week this summer, and the Toronto Maple Leafs had no say in any of it.
The first overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft spent his offseason in British Columbia skating alongside Macklin Celebrini, per NHL.com.
He described the volume himself, and admitted his own trainers would not enjoy hearing the number.
“My trainers probably won't like to hear this, but there was a week where we were on the ice for like 17 hours… It was crazy, but every skate out there, you're getting better, and it's a competitive group. So, I've had a lot of fun with it.
He's a pretty intense guy when it comes to his off-ice and on-ice stuff. To be in that environment and get into a routine, it felt good. I had a lot of fun, and I felt like I got better.”
- Gavin McKenna
He's a pretty intense guy when it comes to his off-ice and on-ice stuff. To be in that environment and get into a routine, it felt good. I had a lot of fun, and I felt like I got better.”
- Gavin McKenna
Those trainers do not work for Toronto. NHL clubs hand a drafted teenager a three-year entry-level contract and then watch his most formative months unfold somewhere they have no authority.
The name behind the British Columbia skates
Celebrini's father, Rick, is vice president of player health and performance for the Golden State Warriors and a former Vancouver Whitecaps physiotherapist.
He co-founded the Fortius Institute in Burnaby, a sport science facility built around workload management and injury prevention.
That context reframes the 17-hour number entirely. It averages under two and a half hours a day, inside what is likely the most closely monitored training environment in hockey.
What Toronto is actually inheriting
John Chayka, Mats Sundin and Jim Hiller were all hired within the past three months. None of them has run a training camp with McKenna, and none of them built the routine he just spent his summer absorbing.
Celebrini signed a five-year, $94 million extension Wednesday carrying an $18.8 million cap hit, the highest in league history.
Mike Grier said Celebrini asked for less than the roughly $20.8 million available so San Jose could build around him.
That is the judgment McKenna stood next to for 17 hours, and it is worth more to a rebuilding club than the skating volume. Every team drafting a franchise player lives with the same quiet fact.
The summer belongs to somebody else, and Toronto's first real look at what McKenna built comes in September.
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