Rising star Gavin McKenna appears to maintain roll going when Drugs Hat visits Vancouver Giants

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The Vancouver Giants have been struggling to take possession of their very own zone of late, and issues don’t get any simpler Wednesday after they face the uptempo Drugs Hat Tigers and rising star Gavin McKenna.

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The 7 p.m. contest on the Langley Occasions Centre versus the Giants marks the third recreation of Drugs Hat’s five-game B.C. street swing, which is their first go to to this province since November 2019. 

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McKenna is already getting buzz as a potential No. 1 general decide within the 2026 NHL Draft. The 6-foot, 165-pound rookie winger from Whitehorse doesn’t flip 16 till late December, however he has had 5 objectives and 14 factors by means of eight video games this season going into Drugs Hat’s go to to the Victoria Royals on Tuesday.

That places him on tempo for 43 objectives and 120 factors over a full 68-game common season with the Tigers, the squad coached by former Vancouver Canucks bench boss Willie Desjardins. McKenna is anticipated to overlook motion with the World Beneath-17 Problem, which runs Nov. 2-11 in Charlottetown and Summerside, PEI.

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He’s properly into drawing comparisons to Connor Bedard, the centre from North Vancouver who was the No. 1 decide on this summer season’s NHL Draft after tearing up the WHL with the Regina Pats. Because it occurs, McKenna and Bedard are distant cousins by marriage. 

The Giants, in the meantime, are coming off a 6-3 loss to the Swift Present Broncos final Friday the place they led 40-30 photographs and nonetheless acquired a robust effort from goaltender Brett Mirwald. That’s not a sentence you see usually in hockey — it suggests of the prime scoring alternatives they’re giving up in their very own zone.

It was an analogous story the sport earlier than, when Vancouver fell 6-2 on the street to Portland Winterhawks. 

“It’s one other monitor meet once more,” Giants coach Manny Viveiros mentioned of dealing with the Tigers. “It’s an awesome measuring stick for our gamers. We need to be these groups. We need to be what Portland is, we need to be what Swift Present is, we need to be what Drugs Hat is. However we’re not there but.

“This studying software for us. It’s ‘that is what we want enhance on guys. Let’s get there. We have now the potential to get to that degree.’”

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Viveiros, who’s in his first yr with the Giants, needs to play a puck-possession recreation, and the membership has extra talent that it had a yr in the past, thanks largely to the additions of children like 16-year-old rookie winger Cameron Schmidt, who has been on Vancouver’s first-unit energy play to begin the marketing campaign.

Viveiros can also be fast to say “if you wish to be good at this degree, you’re going to need to study to play at each ends of the ice.”

“We’re a younger group. We’re going to make errors. We have now to guarantee that we’re studying from it,” Viveiros mentioned. “We’re struggling in that (defensive) capability. We’re enjoying what I’d name minor midget hockey. It’s not simply our younger guys. It’s a few of our older gamers, too. We search for our older gamers to steer in that capability, they usually’re making errors that you just’d hope they wouldn’t make at this stage of their junior careers.” 

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Vancouver (2-3-0-0) had a lightweight schedule to begin, enjoying its first 5 video games in 22 days. Wednesday kicks off a stretch of 4 video games in 5 days, with the Drugs Hat recreation adopted by visits to the Wenatchee Wild on Friday and Kelowna Rockets on Saturday earlier than returning to the LEC on Sunday for a day match-up towards the Spokane Chiefs.

The Tigers carried a 5-2-1-0 mark into Tuesday’s go to to Victoria. They end off the journey with a Friday go to to the Kamloops Blazers after which a Sunday go to to the Prince George Cougars.

McKenna is properly versed in B.C. already, contemplating he performed two seasons with Rink Academy Kelowna earlier than shifting final yr to Southern Alberta Academy, which is situated in 10 minutes exterior Drugs Hat in Dunmore, Alta.

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Regardless of his age, McKenna led the Canadian College Sport Beneath-18 prep league in scoring final yr, with 75 factors, together with 37 objectives, in 26 video games with Southern Alberta. He additionally had 4 objectives and 18 factors in 16 video games with Drugs Hat as an underage call-up.

“We like to make comparisons in hockey. He’s a special participant than Connor, however he’s bought ‘it,” defined Maco Balkovec, the manager director of Rink Academy Kelowna. “He has that shake, that capability to interrupt folks down 1-on-1. He’s unimaginable laterally and his shot has come a great distance. He’s going to be the following one.” 

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