The radio voice of the Saskatoon Blades, Les Lazaruk recognizes why Gavin McKenna left the Western Hockey League for the NCAA.
"I will say this about the Gavin McKenna situation. A lot of people are grousing about the fact that, 'How could he do that? Why would he leave?' Well, there are 700,000 good reasons for it. But does he really have anything left to prove at this level of hockey? He's done everything: he has led the league in scoring, he has been able to lead his team to a championship, they came within a couple goals of winning the whole ball of wax in the Memorial Cup," Lazaruk said on the SportsCage.
"He doesn't have anything to prove anymore at this level, so let him move on. The only bad thing about it is that when his name is called first overall in the NHL Draft next June, it won't be as a member of the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League. It's going to be as a member of the Penn State Nittany Lions from U.S. College hockey in the NCAA. That's the only bad thing about it. Trust me, at the league level, they don't like that, but he doesn't have anything to prove and doesn't owe this league anything."
During McKenna's last season with the Tigers in the WHL, he played 56 games in the regular season, scoring 41 goals while recording 88 assists. The Tigers and McKenna went 16-2 in the 2025 WHL playoffs and won the Ed Chynoweth Cup. Medicine Hat carried that momentum and made it to the Memorial Cup final, but were defeated by the London Knights 4-1.
The reason McKenna can play in the NCAA is due to a rule change, which previously prohibited CHL players from heading south. That rule was amended on November 7, 2024. Former Regina Pats forward Braxton Whitehead was the first person to announce his intentions to go to the NCAA and play for the Arizona State University Sun Devils.
Lazaruk believes Tigers' general manager Willie Desjardins can keep Medicine Hat competitive without McKenna.
"I think he's a very good person to be in command of the Medicine Hat franchise and try to navigate them through what they're going to go through this year," Lazaruk detailed. "I have full confidence that Medicine Hat will be a very good team and will give people all kinds of troubles before all is said and done in the 2025-2026 season."
Lazaruk believes there are many factors players should consider when thinking about leaving the CHL for NCAA hockey.
"I think it's still going to take a little while. I'm curious to see what happens come Christmas time. There are some young guys who are not 20 years old who graduated high school, are 18 or 19 and made the jump to the NCAA this year. These kids are being exposed to something they have never encountered before. There's the university life, the whole idea you're playing hockey against guys who are 23, 24 years old in some instances. Are you getting the ice time? Are you the number one centre? Are you on the first power play unit? Probably not, unless you're really special like McKenna," Lazaruk said.
"Are you happy at Christmas time that you've sat out maybe a couple of weekends? That all the promises that were made to you maybe aren't coming to fruition? Maybe they are, maybe they won't. We'll see if there's going to be some guys making their way back with tails between their legs or they're going to stick it out and they'll find a way to make it work for themselves. If they do, good on them, I'll give them full credit, but I fully expect to see there will be some decommitments at some point in time. If not at Christmas time, then after the end of this season, and you'll see even some guys who have committed and haven't yet gone, saying, 'Maybe I'll wait another year or two before I take that jump down.'"
