The projected first overall draft selection in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft is reportedly taking his talents to the NCAA.
After weeks of speculation on where Gavin McKenna would play in the 2025-26 season, the reports started heating up that he’d be playing in the NCAA.
Today, Cam Robinson, alongside others, reported the news that McKenna will be taking his talents to Penn State.
This comes long after the NCAA put the finishing touches on a rule change allowing CHL players to play college hockey in the United States as soon as next season.
Before this change, if a player were to play in the CHL and want to make the jump over to the NCAA, they’d have to sit out a full season before being deemed eligible to join whichever NCAA team they wanted. There were also seasons of NCAA eligibility that were also being burned if a player were to play in the CHL.
The Western Hockey League, alongside its governing body, the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), must find alternative ways to attract top-end talent before it’s too late.
A move as large as McKenna leaving the Medicine Hat Tigers for Penn State University could signal the beginning of the end for the CHL and potentially U Sports.
McKenna, 17, was the 2024 CHL Player of the Year and has been a massive part of the Tigers’ success in recent years. The Whitehorse, Yukon product finished his 2024-25 season with a whopping 129 points (41G, 88A) in just 56 games. He even added a 40-game point streak that extended all the way to 54 games in the WHL playoffs. This feat is a current CHL record for longest single-season point streak across the regular season, playoffs, and Memorial Cup.
There have been plenty of other CHL talent who’ve moved to the NCAA, with Cayden Lindstrom, a former teammate of McKenna’s in Medicine Hat, being one of the first dominoes.
The third youngest CHL Player of the Year, behind Sidney Crosby and John Tavares, will look to make an immediate impact in the NCAA when Penn State and Arizona State clash for two games on October 3rd and 4th.
ITR 45: Everything Is Happening – Inside The Rink
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