The concept of the “one and done” isn’t foreign to collegiate athletics overall. College basketball has been dealing with it over the last three decades. With the 2024 NCAA decision to allow Canadian Hockey League (CHL), an umbrella league that oversees Canada’s three major junior ice hockey leagues, along with NIL opportunities.
Penn State has always had an aggressive tone since it joined Division I hockey in 2011. Penn State alum and Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula bankrolled the program that helped build a state-of-the art arena in the Pegula Center.
Ever since that jumpstart, the program had its most successful season reaching the program’s first Frozen Four appearance.
Penn State knew it had to go big if it wanted, up to this point, the ultimate hockey “one and done.”
Penn State went big on hockey by landing the commitment of Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada) prodigy Gavin McKenna. The rumored compensation package is $700,000 ($1 million CAD).
Gavin McKenna in 2024 By Kaiser matias – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155382093
McKenna won the 2024-25 David Branch Player of the Year given to the most outstanding player amongst the three most valuable players recipients of the Quebec, Ontario, and Western Hockey Leagues (McKenna received the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy given to the WHL MVP). McKenna played at a level another WHL prodigy Connor Bedard did last season for Medicine Hat Tigers leading the WHL with 88 assists and notching 129 points in 56 games.
With McKenna not NHL Draft eligible for the 2025-2026 NHL season was looking to leverage the new loophole opened, something we have seen other schools do.
Texas Tech’s collective, “The Matador Club,” just rewarded pitcher NiJaree Canady to a second seven-figure NIL agreement. Carnady completed her first season taking the Red Raiders to their first ever appearance in the Women’s College World Series (WCWS) Final against Texas, led the nation in ERA with 0.97 and second in strikeouts with 317 compiling a 34-7 record.
Joining McKenna via the transfer portal is defenseman Mac Gadowsky, (Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky’s son), and goaltender Kevin Reider. Penn State has also attracted five-star defenseman and Columbus Blue Jackets first-rounder Jackson Smith, Calgary Flames prospect Luke Misa and now McKenna.
The goal for Penn State is pretty clear to McKenna.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“I think the main goal is obviously to win a championship,” McKenna said. “I think you kind of saw what Penn State did this year, making it to the Frozen Four. They’ve come a long ways. And I think next year, when I go there, obviously, that’s the goal, is to win a championship.”
Much like Texas Tech, who fell in the final game of the WCWS, the stakes are high for Penn State’s hockey program.
Penn State won’t have the luxury of luring McKenna back like Texas Tech was able with Canady. This is going to be a team that is only going to be together for a year before the NHL comes calling. McKenna has comparisons to current and former Chicago Blackhawks Connor Bedard (current) and Patrick Kane (former) and has ceilings of John Tavares and Sidney Crosby. McKenna when he is eligible will be in the NHL.
Anything less than a national championship will be a failure. With so many blue chip freshman and NHL caliber players, falling short has no moral victories. I don’t feel the amount of money being invested in McKenna having the return on investment of having a player selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft is worth it.
The true return on investment has to be a national championship but more than that becoming a pipeline from elite talent and asserting itself in hockey over current and traditional powers in the Big Ten of Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota along with national powers in Boston, Boston College, Western Michigan, and Denver.
For now, Penn State can celebrate securing its hockey prodigy, it was successful in its first gamble jumpstarting hockey. Now the second one is to put it in the stratosphere amongst the hockey elite with national championship glory.
