{"id":501489,"date":"2026-10-19T22:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501489\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T22:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:44:12","slug":"maple-leafs-gavin-mckenna-in-awe-of-macklin-celebrinis-work-ethic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501489\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs’ Gavin McKenna in awe of Macklin Celebrini’s work ethic"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 A few months after skating and training with Macklin Celebrini,<\/a> Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Gavin McKenna remains in awe<\/a> of the San Jose Sharks captain\u2019s work ethic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would personally call him just a machine,\u201d the 18-year-old McKenna said of Celebrini,<\/a> who turned 20 in June. \u201cThe way he\u2019s skating every day, working out every day, taking care of his body and the way he\u2019s fueling his body, it\u2019s so pro.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt such a young age, it\u2019s really impressive to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenna, selected first overall by the Leafs at the NHL draft in June, will play Celebrini and the Sharks for the first time on Monday<\/a> at Scotiabank Arena. Celebrini was taken first overall by the Sharks in 2024 and was the NHL\u2019s fourth-leading scorer last season with 115 points.<\/p>\n

Like many players his age, McKenna admired Celebrini for what he\u2019s accomplished in his first two-plus NHL seasons, including representing Canada at the Winter Olympics in Milan in February.<\/p>\n

Then McKenna saw firsthand how much work Celebrini puts in during the offseason, as the two spent time training together in the Vancouver area this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of good moments. Maybe not in the moment I was having too fun of a time,\u201d McKenna said with a smile of training with Celebrini. \u201cBut looking back, he\u2019s pushing me; he\u2019s pushing all of his buddies. When you\u2019re training with a guy like that, it helps you. He pushed me, so it was a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see a guy like that, you see how hard he works, and how well he\u2019s doing; it kind of shows where you\u2019ve got to get to.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenna said he, Celebrini and a few others, skated twice in one day and also did the Grouse Grind, a challenging 1.6-mile hiking trail on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Celebrini\u2019s done the hike in an impressive 38 minutes. McKenna said he did his around 41 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a tough one,\u201d said McKenna, a Whitehorse, Yukon native. \u201cEvery day is tough out there, but that\u2019s what you want in the summer, is to get better. I appreciated what he did for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini also grew to appreciate McKenna\u2019s talents, and it\u2019s no stretch to say the two could one day be on the same Canadian World Cup or Olympic team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really know him before,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cIt was just great to get to know him, hang out with him, and spend some time with him. On the ice, he\u2019s such a skilled player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 A few months after skating and training with Macklin Celebrini, Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Gavin McKenna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[402,181,1035,404,88,90,89,98,403,94685,127],"class_list":["post-501489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sharks-alert","tag-social-alert","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}