The most talked-about teen hockey player in North America right now is eighteen-year-old Gavin McKenna, who was born in Whitehorse, Yukon, and was chosen first overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2026 NHL Draft. This past season, he scored 51 points in 35 games at Penn State, won the Big Ten scoring championship, and set a program record with 36 assists. You are familiar with his name if you are even a casual hockey fan. What you probably don’t know — and what the internet has been quietly trying to figure out — is whether he has a girlfriend.
To put it succinctly and honestly, no one is completely certain. But there is one name that keeps surfacing.
Back in July 2025, when McKenna’s name began to come up frequently in discussions about the NHL draft, a Calgary sports writer wrote on X that the Penn State forward was seeing Syracuse University hockey player Jordan Blouin. When McKenna’s draft stock became unavoidable, the post was picked up by larger outlets after initially spreading quietly. Blouin herself had a productive freshman season at Syracuse, collecting 16 points. Two hockey players at rival programs dating each other has a certain symmetry to it, the kind of detail that feels real precisely because nobody would bother inventing it.
Still, neither McKenna nor Blouin has publicly confirmed anything. There are no comments that reveal the game, no tagged posts, and no couple photos. It’s possible the relationship is ongoing and simply private. It’s equally possible things have run their course, as they often do when two young athletes are navigating demanding schedules at schools hours apart. Neither has spoken in either direction, which could indicate discretion or that there is nothing more to reveal.
It’s evident that McKenna has chosen to keep his personal life private since coming to Penn State. For elite athletes his age, that is not uncommon; those who treat their professional focus as something worth preserving are typically the ones who survive. Keeping one aspect of life truly private seems less like a tactic and more like self-preservation at eighteen, when one is already subject to the scrutiny that comes with being the predicted number one pick.
It’s important to note that McKenna’s legal predicament earlier this year—he was charged after an alleged altercation at State College in January, but the most serious felony charge was later dropped after prosecutors examined video evidence—only increased public interest in his private life. Every detail becomes fair game when someone enters that kind of spotlight. His family history, his distant family ties to Connor Bedard, his Tr.”ondëk Hwëchýin ancestry, and yes, who he might be dating, all began to be scrutinized.
Is there a girlfriend for Gavin McKenna? The most accurate thing anyone can say right now is: maybe. There was a reported connection to Jordan Blouin, a plausible one involving two young athletes in overlapping hockey worlds. However, it stays just that—a rumor with a reliable source, not a verified fact—in the absence of confirmation from either side.
The relationship status itself isn’t what’s truly intriguing in this case. It’s that in an era when even teenagers are expected to perform their personal lives publicly, McKenna has mostly refused. He gives the hockey a voice. That’s probably the right decision in light of everything that has transpired over the past year.
