How Does Gavin McKenna's Rookie Campaign With Maple Leafs Compare With Auston Matthews' First NHL Season?

Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Gavin McKenna has played through a quarter of his first NHL season. In 21 games, he has scored six goals and seven assists for 13 points, leading all NHL rookies in scoring.

With that, McKenna has five power-play points, eight penalty minutes, a minus-10 rating and averages 13:56 of ice time per game.

He's been decent at producing offense, but his lack of playing time hinders how effective he can be on that front. In fairness, the 18-year-old has made some costly mistakes in a handful of outings, which is only to be expected from any young player in his teens.

Toronto selecting McKenna first overall in this past summer's draft comes 10 years after the franchise took Auston Matthews with the first pick of the 2016 draft.

McKenna is coming into a great situation in terms of what his teammates can offer him with advice and mentorship, and the Leafs captain is certainly someone to contribute.

But looking at this point in the season, how does McKenna's rookie season compare to Matthews' so far?

Matthews, as everyone knows, started off with a bang. He scored four goals in his first-ever game, setting his record for the most goals scored in an NHL debut. McKenna didn't have that type of debut, but that doesn't raise any concern.

After 21 games, Matthews has scored nine goals and eight assists for 17 points, four more than McKenna's current total. Now, Matthews has also had much more ice time under Mike Babcock compared to McKenna under Jim Hiller.

The Scottsdale, Ariz., native saw 17:21 of average ice time per game at that point in the year.

Unlike McKenna, Matthews was not leading rookies in scoring after game No. 21. In fact, he wasn't even leading the team in rookie scoring, with a 19-year-old Mitch Marner scoring seven goals and 18 points.

But Matthews does hold the edge in most major categories over Toronto's 2026 top draft pick. Aside from the scoring and ice time, he was just a minus-two, and in a much more prominent role than McKenna, who is positioned on the third line for the most part of this campaign.

Matthews also had zero penalty minutes, which continued to be a trend throughout his career because he's never accumulated more than 20 in a single season.

Also, Matthews' scoring came mostly at even strength, with just one power-play goal and six points on the man advantage after 21 contests.

He went on to score 40 goals and 69 points that season, setting the tone for the rest of his career up to that point. The superstar center also finished the campaign with a plus-two rating, averaging 17:38 of ice time per game, and eight goals and 21 points on the power play.

He went on to lead all rookies in scoring by five points and had the most goals by four, both over the runner-up, Patrik Laine. Matthews would be awarded the Calder Trophy as the most proficient rookie of the year.

For McKenna, he's still destined to have a great season, and a career, for that matter. He's on pace for 24 goals and 52 points in 84 games, and while it's much less than Matthews' totals, it isn't production to scoff at if he can end the season around that mark.

Plus, as he grows with every single practice and game, he could become more comfortable as the year goes on and escalate his game from there.

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