Buffalo Sabres center Dylan Cozens had just finished a tough summer training session when he and trainer Ben McPherson went out into the Yukon wilderness to fish.
“I know the spot,” McPherson remembered Cozens saying. Within 10 minutes of casting his line, Cozens caught a big one.
“He probably had that thing on the line for 40 minutes, and remember, he just had a workout before that, deadlifts and hinges. And he’s doing the same thing with the fish,” McPherson said. “He was exhausted by the end of it, a 40-something-pound lake trout. … It was like the biggest fish I’ve ever seen.”
That moment from two summers ago has stuck with McPherson because it shows the determination Cozens brings to everything he does — training, fishing, hockey.
“Competitive, like, he wants the biggest fish in the lake,” McPherson said before sharing a picture of Cozens’ catch.
Maybe there’s something special in Yukon’s fresh waters that helps this remote Canadian territory — known for the Klondike gold rush — produce NHL-caliber talent.
At the 2019 NHL draft in Vancouver, Cozens was selected 7th overall by Buffalo, making him the first Yukoner picked in the first round. Now in his fifth NHL season, he is a well-known top-line, two-way player with 66 goals and 166 points in 282 games.
Gavin McKenna, who is also from Yukon’s capital of Whitehorse, is just 16 and is already expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft. In his first full season with the WHL’s Medicine Hat, McKenna scored 34 goals and had 97 points in 61 games, earning the Canadian Hockey League rookie of the year award.
“We’re seeing more and more competitive players come out of there, so it’s really awesome to see,” said Cozens, who is 23. “I think I put Yukon on the map, but Gavin’s going to really put it on the map.”
McKenna’s father, Willy, proudly mentioned how Whitehorse could become the Cole Harbour of the north, referring to the Nova Scotia hometown of Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.
“It’s the long winters that the kids have here, and their access to backyard rinks,” he added, while praising Cozens for showing what was possible.
“He kind of paved the way for Gavin, even though Gavin would have tried his hardest regardless,” he said. “It definitely gave Gavin a little more hope.”
The two players know each other, as McKenna is friends with Cozens’ younger brother Luke. They share the same trainer. Both spent their long, dark winter days skating on backyard rinks built by their fathers and left Whitehorse young to pursue their dreams of playing hockey.
Cozens moved to suburban Vancouver at 14, two years after he broke his tibia and fibula when he crashed into the boards during a game against older players. McKenna was 12 when he left to attend a hockey academy in Kelowna, British Columbia.
His father became emotional, recalling how his son arrived with a broken wrist and then broke the other wrist during his first practice.
“That’s why it kind of breaks me up a bit because …” McKenna said, pausing to gather his thoughts. “You know, any normal kid would have just said, ‘I want to go home,’ which he didn’t do. … I think going through that and being on his own, he probably proved to himself, ‘Yeah, I can do it.’”
Gavin McKenna credits his family and the Whitehorse community, which supported him when he held raffles and fundraisers to help cover the costs of flying out of town 12 to 18 times a year for hockey.
“I do my best to give back to the community, helping with hockey camps for the younger kids coming out,” said McKenna, who is also proud of his Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin First Nation heritage. “I want to be a big motivator for Indigenous people and young athletes to believe in themselves and hopefully influence them and their dreams and their goals.”
Cozens remembers the friends and family members who made the 2 1/2-hour flight to attend the 2019 draft. Whitehorse has since developed a Sabres fanbase, where most bars show Buffalo games and have a Cozens jersey hanging on the wall.
In the second year of a seven-year, $49.7 million contract, Cozens has bought a new boat and a piece of land with a great view of Kluane National Park and Reserve. Returning home each offseason lets Cozens reconnect with nature and refresh his mind.
Cozens arrived in Buffalo last month determined to help turn around a team that has struggled with a 13-year playoff drought, the worst in the NHL.
Thinking about the fight to land the lake trout, Cozens recalled the relief and sense of achievement he felt when he finally caught the fish. He believes it will feel similar to bringing success back to Buffalo.
“I know that day we win the Stanley Cup, it’ll be so much excitement, so much, but also a life-long goal achieved,” Cozens said.
In other words, he has even bigger goals to achieve. “Always,” Cozens said.
