Penn State’s 2025-26 season ended in the opposite fashion of the year before.
Last season, the Nittany Lions were one of the hottest teams in the country, going 10-3-1 down the stretch before losing to Boston University in their first Frozen Four appearance.
This season, despite adding highly touted recruits and transfers such as Gavin McKenna, Jackson Smith, Luke Misa and Mac Gadowsky, while also returning 83% of their offensive production, Penn State stumbled badly late in the year. The Nittany Lions went 3-8-2 in their final 13 games and closed the season with a 3-1 loss to Minnesota-Duluth in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
For a team with this much talent, that finish was undeniably disappointing.
With McKenna arriving after winning Medicine Hat’s Dave Branch Player of the Year award in the CHL and entering the season as the consensus No. 1 overall prospect for the 2026 NHL Draft, many believed Penn State had added the kind of player who could carry a team back to the Frozen Four or even to a national championship.
Neither happened.
Because of that, many will argue Penn State wasted a golden opportunity with McKenna. There is at least some case to be made that the Nittany Lions failed to maximize what could be a once-in-a-generation talent in the Blue and White.
But that is not the full story.
Disappointment does not automatically equal waste. And while Penn State fell well short of its ultimate goals, there are five compelling reasons to believe the program did not waste Gavin McKenna.
1. McKenna Needed Refinement & Experience
McKenna was not draft eligible until the 2026 NHL Draft, and Penn State gave him something he still needed: a high-level environment in which to grow beyond pure offensive brilliance.
As a prospect, McKenna entered college hockey as one of the most polished offensive talents the sport has seen in years, drawing comparisons to elite names such as Connor McDavid, John Tavares and Sidney Crosby. But even players with that level of skill still have areas to sharpen before they are fully ready for the NHL.
For McKenna, the biggest growth area was defensive consistency. Winning pucks, shutting down opponents and maintaining a strong work rate away from the puck were all areas that needed improvement. Scouts also wanted to see better effort on the backcheck and more reliable shift-to-shift intensity.
He also needed to get stronger. McKenna arrived at roughly 170 pounds, and that mattered. At times, he could still be pushed around or steered to the perimeter in ways that a future NHL star eventually must overcome.
There was also the challenge of adapting to the college style: bigger bodies, older players, faster decisions and far less time and space. McKenna himself acknowledged that adjustment, noting how different college hockey was because of the size, age and pace of the competition.
By March, he said one of the areas in which he had improved was competing every shift. That matters. It suggests Penn State helped sharpen not only his habits, but also the day-to-day demands that come with becoming a complete player.
McKenna did not need Penn State to become famous. He needed Penn State to become more complete.
He is better for that experience, and so is the program.
2. It Made Guy Gadowsky A Better Coach
One of the more popular discussions on social media in recent days has been the comparison between Guy Gadowsky and former Penn State football coach James Franklin — the idea being that when expectations rose and the school went all in, the results did not match the hype.
At the surface, that argument has some bite. But it also misses context.
After the 3-1 loss to Minnesota Duluth, Gadowsky openly admitted the experience of coaching through this season made him better.
“Ever since we got to the Frozen Four, it has been a whirlwind of attention, eyeballs, expectations, all of it,” Gadowsky said. “I learned a lot this year. This year, it was tough to stay away from outside noise. I think the players did a great job because it could have gone south a number of times, and it didn’t. They held it together, and they grinded it out, and they got to the postseason because of that.”
That is not the quote of a coach who was oblivious. That is the quote of a coach who understands that new levels of success create new levels of pressure.
Gadowsky already owns a resume worthy of immense respect. He is approaching the top 25 all-time in coaching wins, helped elevate Penn State from an ACHA powerhouse into a legitimate Big Ten contender, and has delivered a Frozen Four appearance, a regular-season championship in 2020 and a Big Ten tournament title in 2017.
But great coaches still have to evolve.
And while Penn State has faced expectations before, nothing matched the scale of the spotlight that surrounded the 2025-26 season. If Gadowsky learned from it, and by his own admission he did, then this season was not just a disappointment. It was also an education.
3. The “Gavin Effect” On The Underclassmen
Gadowsky has used the phrase “Gavin Effect” in a variety of ways, but one of the most important may be what McKenna’s presence did for the players around him.
Internally, the benefit is simple: players who skated with McKenna now know what that level looks like every day.
That matters.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Jackson Smith, according to Chase Fisher of Penn State on SI, made it clear he intends to return.
“Can’t wait,” Smith said. “This place means so much to me after one year. I can only imagine after two. I know I’ll remember this feeling, and I’m not gonna let it happen again.”
That quote should resonate.
Penn State will bring back a strong nucleus, including Shea Van Olm, who was developing into one of the Big Ten’s more dangerous power forwards, and Luke Misa, a former five-star talent. Dane Dowiak should also return from injury, while goaltenders Josh Fleming and Kevin Reidler gain yet another year of experience.
Then there is Aiden Fink, who faces a major decision on whether to return or sign an entry-level NHL contract.
Whatever the roster looks like next season, Penn State’s young core now has firsthand experience of what elite talent, elite expectations and elite scrutiny look like.
That is not waste. That is infrastructure.
4. Penn State Grew Organizationally
If there is one section of this argument that comes closest to conceding some level of missed opportunity, it is this one.
Penn State may not have maximized every piece around McKenna. But what the program gained was a clearer understanding of what it must become to better capitalize on seasons like this in the future.
That matters more than many want to admit.
It is difficult to be overly harsh on Gadowsky’s overall roster construction when Penn State has made the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four years and owns the second-most wins in Big Ten tournament history since the event began in 2014.
Still, this season exposed how thin the margin can be.
Penn State dealt with major injuries, especially to Keaton Peters, Charlie Cerrato and Dane Dowiak. At times, the Nittany Lions struggled simply to ice three effective lines. That is not an excuse for the finish, but it is part of the explanation.
Programs grow when pressure reveals exactly where they are vulnerable.
If this season forces Penn State to think more urgently and more aggressively about depth, durability and roster balance, then McKenna’s year was not just about what happened on the ice. It was about what the program learned behind the scenes.
5. McKenna Opened The Door For Bigger Things
If anyone inside Guy Gadowsky’s program still believed Penn State’s rise was being viewed as a novelty, he shut that down Friday night.
“There’s eyes on us now. There’s new expectations. A lot of things happened that put eyes on us. And it was a learning experience,” Gadowsky said. “Would I go back and do some things a little differently? Sure, but it was our first time as a program through this. I’m just so proud of the guys for grinding through all of that. And for them to make it here, I know we didn’t get back to the Frozen Four, but to make the tournament is a heck of an accomplishment.”
That quote gets to the heart of this column.
Two major things came from the McKenna season.
First, Penn State can now say with credibility that elite, top-of-the-food-chain talent will come here. That is no longer theoretical. It is no longer a recruiting pitch based on possibilities. It happened.
Second, higher expectations are now normal.
That is uncomfortable, but it is healthy.
Gadowsky did not come to Penn State to merely participate in big moments. He came to win them. Getting back to the NCAA Tournament mattered, and Penn State accomplished that. Yes, the Nittany Lions fell short once they got there. But the fact they returned at all reinforces that they want to be a permanent fixture, not a one-year story.
There may not be another prodigy exactly like Gavin McKenna walking through the door anytime soon. Players like that are rare.
But there will be more five-star talents. There will be more impact transfers. There will be more players deciding where they want to chase something big.
And because the Gavin McKenna experience happened at Penn State, the Nittany Lions will now be taken far more seriously in those conversations.
That is not waste.
That is groundwork.
