Medium Meals | July 30, 2026
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Who is Gavin McKenna and what did David Alter learn about him at the Upper Deck showcase?
S-D-E. with your hosts, Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake. And David, mother effing alter.
That is an intro.
Let me say this. David was the first person who ever made time to be a guest on this show. Ever. We did try to get somebody from the Boston Globe back in the day. I forget who it was. And they're like, that'll be $500.
Was it Kevin Paul DuPont? It was. It was Kevin Paul DuPont. Oh, wow.
Wow. Great recall. And we were like, we don't have 500 American dollars. This is a brand new podcast. There's like 2,000 people listening to this. You said my words aren't free. Is that what he said? Yeah.
Well, I mean, I guess that's right.
That's fair.
The one thing I will say, the Boston Globe still is one of the few outlets that travel. Hell yeah. So there is that. Good for them. I'm not hating on them. Get your money.
It couldn't come from us.
Oh, I was at the time.
I was like, you're a jerk. Adam, I assume you've made time at some point in the show, maybe later on for David's travels and how they've come to an end. Yes.
Oh, we will be talking.
You're making every single Leafs game for that little stretch.
Oh, yeah. I'm actually going to mix that in, funnily enough, with the Columbus news that we saw yesterday. I want to talk a little bit about the media side of things. Oh, yeah. So we'll save that for now. I do want to say, of course, in Clubhouse, coming up in September, live show Saturday night this time, which is great. This is our fourth year running with this, September 26th, Saturday night. David, you can come if you want to. Although there might be some preseason games going on. When is it? Saturday, September 26th.
Okay.
Come on down to St. Catharines. Come meet everybody with us.
I don't think they play that.
50 tickets have already been sold for this. There are 200 available. So these are going fast. So please be there. It's always a great time. And as Steve says, the owners have a new kid every single year that they debut.
Can't wait to see the size of the family this time.
I guess we'll see. The other thing we should mention is that this is our last show ever. Oh, so there it is up on the screen, by the way. This is our last show of the season, 25, 26. We wanted to make a good one having David here. And it's been, I mean, I think we're well into the 130, 140 episodes or something like that, which we do every single year. Last day of school. Last day of school. And then it is vacation. So at the end of the episode, I'm going to ask everybody what they're doing with their August.
It depends on how you count the episodes. I think the regular pods were at least 160 or something like that. 150. And then if you're adding VIP on top of that. We're in the 200s? Yeah, a whole bunch of that.
Hey, listen. Don't ever let them tell you we don't make a lot of content. It's funny. People get mad at us, David. If we ever go below 90 minutes on a main show or below 40 minutes on a VIP show, people are like, what the fuck?
Oh, I guess we're just ripping fans off now.
Okay, sorry. So we've learned our lesson. So get ready to talk, David. We're tap dancing today. Okay, yeah.
You might have to stop me. I'll ramble.
Okay, well, let's first off just start with the most important news of the day is you met Gavin McKenna.
Yes. So yesterday, which I guess was a Wednesday, I traveled to Chicago. The NHLPA Annual Upper Deck Player Showcase was happening. Now, typically, this is something that happens in late August, early September, but they moved it up to the middle of the summer. And it was in Chicago where the last few years, I think it was in D.C. And so, yeah, it was kind of an under the radar kind of opportunity. I thought, hey, let's go to Chicago and go see him and introduce myself and see what his summer's been like. And well worth the trip. OK, what's he like? Happy to do it. What's he like? Nice guy. Really nice guy down to earth. You know, he was kind of going through the car wash with some of the stuff that he had to do on the ice.
But yeah. You know, he kind of mentioned it's been a bit of a whirlwind for him kind of admitted that it's going to be what he thinks will be the busiest summer of his life from a professional standpoint, just because of the draft, all the other demands on his time.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Who is Gavin McKenna and what did David Alter learn about him at the Upper Deck showcase?
0:01–7:21
2
How are top prospects training together and why is McKenna’s offseason described as the busiest of his life?
7:21–51:10
3
Which new Leafs hires were announced and what do they signal for Toronto’s scouting strategy?
51:10–1:05:24
4
How do the hosts predict the 2026-27 Atlantic Division standings?
1:05:24–1:12:20
5
Why is Macklin Celebrini’s five-year $94M extension controversial and what does it mean for future AAVs?
1:12:20–1:27:43
6
What is David Alter’s 'Media Meals' series and which NHL teams ranked best and worst?
1:27:43–2:06:06