NHL rookie roundtable: Gavin McKenna and other top rookies answer burning questions

CHICAGO -- For generations, hockey has rewarded players for fitting in: deflect credit to teammates, never talk about yourself, focus on the next shift. The NHLPA wants to change that. Ever since becoming NHLPA executive director in 2023, Marty Walsh has argued that growing hockey means making its players more visible. "The best ambassadors to grow the game are the players," Walsh said. It has become a major initiative for Walsh's leadership team, including recently retired 17-year veteran Kyle Okposo, who now spends time with the league's youngest players, delivering a message that would've sounded foreign not long ago: take care of your business on the ice -- but don't be afraid to show people who you are off it. "I think there's another stratosphere hockey players can get to," Okposo said. "And we want to help them get there." That philosophy was on display all week at the NHLPA Rookie Showcase in Chicago, where prospects weren't just preparing to become NHL players -- they were learning how to show off their personalities. So before these rookies make names for themselves in the NHL, ESPN asked them to introduce themselves, in their own words. If someone is watching you for the first time this season, what do you hope they say after the game? Trey Augustine (Detroit Red Wings, No. 41 pick in 2023): I hope they would say that he's in control. Carter Bear (Detroit Red Wings, No. 13 pick in 2025): You can tell he has passion for what he wants to do out there and the career he wants to have. Justin Carbonneau (St Louis Blues, No. 19 pick in 2025): He gives it all for the team. I'm an offensive forward, but also I'm working hard and finishing my hits, blocking shots for my teammates. Trevor Connelly (Vegas Golden Knights, No. 19 pick of 2024): Plays a fun style, plays with speed. Smart player, looks to make his teammates better. Andrew Cristall (Washington Capitals, No. 40 pick in 2023): "Wow, I didn't realize how good he is." I'm a pretty smart player where I can make reads and end plays. I'm not a brute force out there. So if they could be like, "Oh wow, this Crystal kid's pretty slippery and he makes plays," that's something that I'd like to hear. Cole Eiserman (New York Islanders, No. 20 pick in 2024): I'm so passionate about the game. I want people to see how much I care about every little moment, every little game, every little goal. It all matters to me. Gavin McKenna (Toronto Maple Leafs, No. 1 pick in 2026): That kid's going to be a player. Roger McQueen (Anaheim Ducks, No. 10 pick in 2025): Obviously, a guy who likes to have fun and smiling out there. Enjoys the game, likes to score goals and is a good teammate. Quentin Musty (San Jose Sharks, No. 23 pick of 2023): That I'm a hardworking player. I think that's what everyone strives for is to kind of be relentless out there. Bill Zonnon (Pittsburgh Penguins, No. 22 pick in 2025): That I worked my ass off. That's what makes me the player I am, just my work ethic, the way I compete every time I'm out there. So I hope that they find that I'm a hard worker. What's something that your oldest buddies and teammates always chirp you about? Bear: They always chirp me about my voice. They just say I'm always faking it, like how deep it is. Carbonneau: I talk loud, that's for sure. I laugh at a joke that they made or whatever and they're like, "Oh my God, calm down." Charlie Cerrato (Carolina Hurricanes, No. 49 pick of 2025): How loud I am. Sometimes, I don't realize how far my voice travels. I'm like, "Oh God." I've gotten in trouble sometimes. Eiserman: The guys give me crap that I like to sing. I like to sing a lot, in the car, in the locker room. But I enjoy it; I think it's fun. Musty: I have a pretty unique last name. So obviously being Musty just growing up and rhymes with Dusty, which is a big hockey term. T.J. Hughes (Colorado Avalanche, undrafted free agent): Some of my older teammates from Michigan, they like to chirp me about doing a lot of mobility. They call me the Mobility Man. Cole Hutson (Washington Capitals, No. 43 pick of 2024): Probably just stuff I did as a kid. I was a pretty dumb kid. I just loved to have fun. Didn't really know my ground much and just this arrogant little kid that would run around and chirp guys. McKenna: Maybe just being too loud in the locker room. Sometimes, I'm just a kid, so I like to joke around and be a loud voice. And maybe my food choices. I spend a lot of money on Uber Eats. Living on my own, had to kind of figure out how to cook, but Uber Eats saved the day. Zonnon: I have some pretty flat feet and people tell me about it all the time. We work out barefoot, so the guys get to see them every day and make fun of me every single time I take my shoes off. What part of your pregame routine are you most obsessed with? Augustine: I always eat a banana before every game. And if we don't have a banana at the rink that day, I'm pretty upset they don't have a banana. Cerrato: So I'm very superstitious. If I have a good game before, I'm going to repeat the suit. And if we lost, probably switch it up. I have this black suit and I love it. I wear it everywhere. It matches with everything, too. The longest I've gone with the same suit is probably six games, at the end of my freshman year [at Penn State]. Cristall: Every time I got to the rink, I'd go right into the ice bath for a few minutes. It was my first time doing it this year, and now I'm obsessed with it. Eiserman: I need my pregame shower before I leave. I need to feel refreshed. I need the music going. I need to feel good. Get the hair going, stuff like that. James Hagens (Boston Bruins, No. 7 pick of 2025): Just being able to listen to music that I like. I love Sam Barber, so I have Sam Barber on all the time. Hutson: I always say my superstition is not being superstitious. I change everything up, but the one thing I do the same is I nap pretty much before every game, but the times change based on how tired I am. I could go a 30-minute nap or I can go a four-hour nap. Porter Martone (Philadelphia Flyers, No. 6 pick of 2025): Definitely my pregame nap. I could shut it down for like three hours if I wanted to. McKenna: Stick handling. I got a little green biscuit that I've used since junior. It's pretty beat up. McQueen: I come to the rink really early. I usually come three hours early. Carbonneau: Probably my sticks. My sticks are my tools to score goals. All the tape that I put on -- a lot of guys just do one. I do like four or five of them. Zonnon: My sticks, they need to be taped up. Every single period, I tape them -- need to be perfect. Same thing with my blades. My equipment needs to be perfect before I go out there. Most embarrassing hockey story? Cerrato: At USA [National Team Development Program], you're young, so you pack the bag. You do everything, right? You don't have equipment staffs like you do now. So I packed my bag and we showed up. It was in Green Bay and I'm like, "I have no sticks." I ended up using Austin Baker's sticks. So shoutout to Bakes. I don't even know if he remembers that, but I had no sticks that weekend. Cristall: My parents have told me when I was learning how to skate and getting on the ice, I would love it so much I'd be crying in the middle of the ice, not wanting to get off. So I think my mom had to go out on the ice and drag me off. Throwing a tantrum in the middle of the ice is probably the worst. Eiserman: At Shattuck-St. Mary, my U14 year, we were at a national tournament. I went to go hit a kid and I completely flipped into our bench. There's video. It's pretty funny to watch now, but yeah, it wasn't too great. Hutson: Multiple turnovers at every level. I had a toe drag when we were up like 4- or 5-1 in Toronto, and Tom [Wilson] let me hear it after the game. He's a guy I'm really close with off the ice, but he'll humble you real quick. You respect him and you listen and then you move on. Hughes: In warmups for a big game at Yost, and Will Horcoff's blades came off. So I try to take him off to the bench, just being a good guy. He's a big guy. All of a sudden, he starts putting all his weight on me and leaning back. And then we both just go right on our backs in front of everyone. The crowd, a couple of chuckles, you could hear it. And all the guys on my team saw and were just giving us crap after. Martone: My draft year, we're in the OHL Cup Finals. It's like the biggest game of my life at that point. This is like the Stanley Cup for me at this age. And I think we were losing 2-1. Our D-man broke a stick, and as he skated back, they got a breakaway. So I tried to huck my stick from the bench to give to our defenseman and it lands in the other guy skates and trips him, and they kicked me out of the game. I played five shifts and I don't know why I did it. I remember I was bawling my eyes out because it's like the biggest day of my life. And we ended up losing too, so it kind of made it worse. First NHL paycheck, what are you spending it on? Augustine: My parents. They've done so much for me and I think they could do with a nice vacation or a nice dinner somewhere. Bear: Buy my parents something nice. Sacha Boisvert (Chicago Blackhawks, No. 18 pick of 2024): I bought myself a watch. Eventually, I want to get some watches and I feel like just kind of like an entry-level watch, when I'm older, I can look back on my first game, my first contract. Carbonneau: I want to take my family to Switzerland. We lived there for two years, and I always told them that I would try to bring them back. Cerrato: I bought clothes. Not like suits, but because the NHL's going a little more casual now, so nice dress-casual clothing. My dad was like, "Don't be an idiot with your money." So I haven't been really spending money on much; it's kind of nice. The worst one's rent. Paying rent sucks. That's the worst day of the month. But other than rent and clothes, I've been pretty good about saving it. Connelly: I don't know if there's anything I really need to spend it on. Probably save and invest it. Maybe a new car in the next couple years, but I've had the same car since I was 17. It's a Jeep. I love Jeeps. Hagens: I actually didn't. I guess just food, probably Chipotle. Hughes: I'm pretty frugal, honestly. Some good steaks, take my parents out for a nice meal. Hutson: Absolutely nothing. OK. Yeah. I did buy a car, but I needed a car. It's a humble car -- it's a truck but nothing special. Martone: A couple dinners for sure with the guys. I remember I went out for dinner with Barks and Bumper [Denver Barkey and Alex Bump] and they were like, "Yeah, our first NHL paycheck, we had to pay for the dinner." So it was my turn and I paid for a couple more after that. I wouldn't say they racked it up, but it was definitely more than what I'm used to. It was cool to kind of just be with those guys, have young guys around you and surrounding you and kind of going through the same thing you are. McQueen: Probably a nice watch. I like watches. I'm eyeing a Rolex. What song gets you the most amped up before a game? Carbonneau: "Dreams and Nightmares" by Meek Mill. I saw LeBron use that song and welcome to Philly, but it just pumps me up before games. Cristall: I'm a pretty big EDM guy. A lot of John Summit. I love Avicii, so anything by those two guys kind of just throw on and get moving a bit. Eiserman: "Free Promo" by Lil Baby. Hutson: It's a song by Drake. I can't say the name because it has a few bad words in it, but definitely that. Roman Kantserov (Chicago Blackhawks, No. 44 pick of 2023): For me, more English music than Russian because English is more like a rock and for the focus on the game. I like Linkin Park. McKenna: "Let It Rock" by Kevin Rudolf. McQueen: I listen to some Nickelback. Zonnon: "Superstar" by Lupe Fiasco. If you could steal any attribute from another player, what are you taking? Augustine: Andrei Vasilevskiy's athleticism and explosiveness. Bear: Connor McDavid's speed, all day. Cristall: It's hard not to say McDavid's skating. Just watching him and seeing how he moves and he just floats on the ice. Or [Alexander Ovechkin's] one-timer because that's pretty legendary. Hutson: Ivan Demidov's hands. McKenna: Auston Matthews' shot. Just his release and the power he has on it. He can kind of score from anywhere. That's something I would love to have. Musty: I was a Red Wings fan growing up, so Pavel Datsyuk. Obviously, his hands are great, but also his hockey IQ. Memorable rookie moments Boisvert (on his first career fight against Will Borgen in his second NHL game): I knew it was going to happen at some point. And then when I got the opportunity, obviously I took it. It was the second period. I got stuck behind the net. And then, he gave me a couple cross-checks and then had a little chitchat and he was like, "Be my guest." And I was like, "OK." Went into the locker room and thought about it a little bit. I was like, "What if I fought? Game could change momentum, could be a good first scrap." Third period, there's a little scrum in the corner. I grabbed him and we just ended up fighting. I think I did pretty good. Hagens (on getting a video call from David Pastrnak on draft night): My brother, his jaw hit the ground. I mean, mine did too. Everybody was just in shock. You grow up watching a player that is one of the best players to ever play and he's FaceTiming you to congratulate you. So, it's something that meant a lot to me. Hutson (on Ovechkin's reaction to his first goal): He was just like, "Let's go." He's pretty fired up. He might've been happier than I was, which is pretty crazy. Everyone was saying you had him open and I just didn't see him at all. I was just too focused on that. I've rewatched it a few times. Everyone watches their first goal. He was definitely open, but just glad I got it out of the way. Kantserov (on being a teammate in Chicago with Patrick Kane): When I was kid, I liked watching him and Artemi Panarin play here. It was the best duo. Some say Kane and [Jonathan] Toews were the best duo, but I think in 2015, Panarin and Kane was the best duo. I like to play EA NHL on my PlayStation, and every time I choose Chicago. And now I'm here, and I can learn from the legend. Martone (on not wearing a helmet for his rookie lap in warmups): Actually, I was getting dressed and I didn't really decide. I looked in my stall and there's no helmet in there. I think either the trainers or the guys on the team took my helmet, so I kind of had no other choice. I remember I went over to the sink, put some water in my hair and went out there. But yeah, it's pretty cool. You kind of get a little bit of nerves kind of skating out there, but once you get on the ice, it's just the game you play and the game you love to do. Zonnon (on having Sidney Crosby as a captain): I was injured during training camp, but I was still hanging out there every day and he would come to me and ask me questions about my injury. And I mean, he didn't have to do that. He was probably one of the only guys that did it, but that just tells you that he has time for everyone, and he's a great person all around.