Maple Leafs select First Nations player first over-all in NHL draft

By Sam Laskaris, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com While speaking about one of the best days of his life—being chosen first over-all in the National Hockey League (NHL) draft June 26—Gavin McKenna, a citizen of the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin First Nation in Yukon, took time to discuss the achievement’s possible impact on Indigenous youth. “I think it will show them that anything is possible,” McKenna said in his first press conference after being drafted by the Maple Leafs.