The Athletic Hockey Show - Gavin McKenna commits to Penn State | Instant Reaction

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Gavin McKenna, the presumptive No. 1 pick in next year’s NHL Draft, is officially joining the Penn State Nittany Lions, making the jump from the WHL to the Big Ten and the NCAA. Max and Corey give their instant reaction to the signing and discuss how things could play out next season. Hosts: Max Bultman and Corey PronmanExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Hey, everybody, Max Boltman and Corey Pranman here for a special edition of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Corey, huge news coming down today. Gavin McKenna officially announcing his commitment to Penn State. This is the big one, right? I mean, we knew as soon as we heard about the CHL NCAA agreement that there were going to be ripple effects of this. And we didn't know exactly how big or how soon they would be this big. but this is one of the biggest.

Not an unforeseen one. It seemed like it was trending this way for Gavin McKenna. But now we are at a place where the most hyped prospect of the 26 NHL draft will go from the CHL into the NCAA. And we expected it just because he had been so good in the WHL the last two years. If he goes back for another season in the Western League, you're talking about a guy who could score possibly three points per game. and I just don't know if he would have gotten the challenges

that you would like to further his development as a hockey player in that kind of environment. So this is expected and he goes into the, he goes to the Big Ten. We always kind of felt it was likely going to be the Big Ten, one of those schools that were going to land him. And it's going to be exciting. You know, we've seen, you know, some really high-end draft eligible seasons.

And over the last decade, most recently, Adam Fantili, Macon, Sellebrini. But you can go back to Jack Eichel, too, what he was the number two pick at Boston. university. I think you're looking at Gavin McKenna now and you're kind of hoping that he can rise to that level. You mentioned Fantilli. Obviously, Owen Power is another Canadian-born player who played their draft eligible season in college. This is an interesting one though because it's not just going to be McKenna in this 2026 class. There's another potential top three pick.

I believe he was third in your initial way too early mock draft. And that's Keaton Verhoff, the defenseman who's going to North Dakota next year, again, leaving the CHL to go play college hockey. you could go easily go too. I think there's absolutely a scenario, a realistic scenario, actually, where the top two picks in next year's draft are Canadians playing college hockey, which just shows the change in the amateur landscape that's happened over the last 12 months where I don't think you're going to see every single top Canadian prospect go to college, especially in their draft years.

Quite frankly, a lot of them are not ready to do that, or they are borderline ready. and if they go, they'll have some significant struggles, not unlike when you see some Americans go to college too early in their draft years and they're up and down unless they're like truly the high end players. But in the case of McKenna and Verhof, I mean, they're going to be, they're among the very, very best for next year's draft. I think Verhoff is clearly the best offenseman in next year's draft. And, you know, I think you could very easily see them go one, two next summer.

All right, so I wanted to, we talked about the mock draft. I wanted to key in on something that you put in the intro paragraph to that. And that's that you view McKenna as a standard number one pick, similar level to Matthew Schaefer. I think the conversation around McKenna has been closer to the hype that there was around Connor Bedard. And we could get into how that's gone for Bardard and how people saw him as generational then versus how they view him now. But I just kind of wanted to get you to elaborate a little bit on that statement. Well, I, you know, me, I tried to be a little cautious in my projections. in that I think to label a guy quote,

generational, and you can debate whether you should be having two generational players in a three-year span, and are you being a little liberal with that label, but that's a whole other issue. Yeah, I think you have to clear every bar for me, I think, to get that label. Even when Bedard was in his draft year,

as you well know, I had questions on his skating, had questions on his size. There were times I watched him and I debated putting Fantilia over him during courses of the year, just because I think that's my job is to ask questions and to and to really think through the evaluations

that's my abilities. And I look at Kevin McKenna and he's an unbelievable offensive talent. His skating is really high end, which I think is a differentiated between him and a guy like a madar of the same age. I think this guy is a fantastic skater. He's super skilled. He's super smart.

Extremely creative, great pace. But like I look at him and I think, like, is he really that much different than say like Jack Hughes was as a prospect at the same age with the size and the skating skill combination. No, maybe not perfect analogy. One's a center.

One's a wing. Gavin may be a little bit more creative. But like I think you can have that argument. You can have an argument how much different is he than Alexei Lefrenier at the same age. He's a way better skater. Left for a year was bigger and a little hell of a more bite in his game. Also a prolific junior score and, you know, dominated the world juniors and had a great international resume. So I think those are the kind of the questions I would have there.

And maybe, you know, I could change my mind. I think the issue with McKenna going to Penn State is I probably am not going to change my mind real quick. Unless right now, the schedules don't usually come out for Big Ten teams until later in the summer. But Penn State has a reputation for kind of not playing serious opponents in the first half of the season. And you talk to NHL scouts over the course the last few years when you look at this one of the Penn State prospects that have come through. And I think a lot of people don't take their stats seriously in the first two, three months of the year until the consistent conference game start against the Big Ten opponents. So, you know, we'll see what their schedule comes out looks like. But if they're

just playing like Atlantic hockey teams or, you know, just, you know, teams that are not considered, you know, traditional top 20, top 25 teams in the country, I think McKinness probably just going to light it up as I don't expect and probably not playing against opponents. That would be much better than the better WHL teams that he would face. And I think that's going, I think you're going to basically wait until the world juniors, quite frankly, in the second half of the season to see him really get pushed. Well, I think that is one of the interesting elements of this in choosing Penn State. We can just go there right now is one of the other teams we thought was heavily in this mix was Michigan State.

And I think a little earlier in the process, we were talking about Michigan. We were talking about obviously what I consider right now. the premier program in college hockey, which is Denver, to choose Penn State. Like the advantages of that, I suppose, would be the focus is all on you, right? If he had gone to Michigan State, which is already, and I would say still the national title favorite, you're surrounded by a lot more talent. And you could argue maybe it's not going to be the Gavin McKenna show in the same way. At Penn State, I think all lies are going to be on him the entire way.

And I guess you could kind of ask, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Do you want to be the biggest fish by that margin in that pond? Or would you have rather seen him in an environment? Now he's going to play Michigan State, for example. I think that's great. We're going to get to watch him play against Michigan State four games this year. Versus if he had been on Michigan State, they might have just steamrolled everybody. And they still might quite frankly, as you say.

I mean, we'll see with Isaac Howard, whether he stays or goes. That's going to be a big variable. Obviously, at Howard has stayed. And now you're talking about the, you know, the Hobie Baker winner having to share a power play with him. and you would still think the power glue would flow through a Gavin McKenna. Then you would have Howard, you'd have Katie and Lindstrom. You'd have some other really good players on that Michigan State team that you'd have to share the puck with. At Penn State, he's not sharing the puck with anyone else.

Yeah, Jackson Smith is a good player. Charlie Serrado's a good player. But that's, as you said, it's Gavin's team. That being said, I do wonder, there were other places he could have gone where that could have been true. and they have more of a reputation for developing NHL players. I do think that was a little bit of an appeal for McKenna was getting a chance to put a stamp on Penn State's program and really elevate them,

kind of like how Kail McCarr did for UMass. Kail McCar was not a premier prospect when he committed to UMS, however. He kind of became that over time, and then he just didn't want to break his commitment. In the case of McKenna, that's not really the case. he's been a premier prospect for a very long time. It's hard to ignore the fact, and it's been publicly reported quite a few times, and I understand that to be true as well, that Penn State was throwing the most money around.

You know, they've been aggressively trying to procure some of the premier CHL players, and I'm not saying Penn State isn't a good place to develop as a hockey player, and there's been guys who have left Penn State who have played NHL games, but this is not what you think of if you think of, Dakota, you know, Michigan, Minnesota, the Boston schools, in terms of a school that has a reputation for developing premier NHL talents. Gavin would be the first. And it's hard not to at least look at the fact that without knowing the exact details, I'm sure he got a very good nil package offered by Penn State. And I don't know whether that should have been a major variable or not.

given that I think he's probably going to make a hundred plus million dollars in the NHL. Hearing what you said earlier about kind of the Penn State scheduling question, I do think it's interesting we don't have their schedule yet. There are some teams out there where we know a little more about what they're going to do early in the season than we do about Penn State.

Yeah, I think they have Arizona and State Clarkson and RIT on their schedule. So two respectable teams, one, not as much. Right. But that's not different than any other teams. So we'll see what the rest of the schedule looks like. And I think that's what's interesting is, for me, the reason that it most made sense for him to go was when you tear up a league the way that he did last year, over two points per game at such a young age. But really before the age, when we're used to seeing guys outgrow a league like that, like, I don't think it would have been good for anybody for him to go to the Western League next year and try to get three points per game.

I think he had to take another step up in competition. But I do wonder, like, you know, I think it's all going to come down to that Big Ten schedule now. I mean, Minnesota is all, those games always are going to matter. Those are always going to be tough games. Michigan, Michigan State, you know, Wisconsin, if they can kind of return to where they historically have been in a program. What are the biggest things you're watching from McKenna at this level that like, to something that he couldn't have done in the Western League, for example?

I think it's going to be a kind of a similar situation to James Higgins that we just went through last year where I think, you know, like Hagan's, McKenna's been an absolutely wonderful junior player just absolutely dominated the junior level. The international hockey of the U18 Worlds. He was one of Canada's better players at the last world juniors, even though they didn't have much success. He just tore up the Western League, you know, reigning

CHL player of the year right now. But I think the things about his game that are going to get picked apart is the fact that he's a slightly below average size, that he's a winger, and he's not very physical. He has a tendency to play a little bit on the perimeter at times or just not and kind of focus on making the skilled plays which he's incredible at you know like I said he has the legit skill of a first overall pick and but I think when he plays against the real teams and he's going up against 22 23 24 year olds who

could skate who are going to hit him I think there's going to be some questions there on on how he handles that and then and some the guys who handle it like a celebrini like they I'm sure you remember Celebrity keeping him to the year as the one but he wasn't won by a mile and by the end of the year he was won by a mile because he showed how good he was against older players

and it's continued to translate to the NHL where he's just shown that he's just such an incredible all-around player and that his tremendous skill is not just the only thing that gets you excited there's other elements in his game. I think this will be an opportunity for Gavin to show that there are other elements in his game that

maybe not his major strength but that he that can handle it, maybe in a way that someone like James Hagan's, quite frankly, didn't handle it as well last season. And even post-draft. I mean, we talk about Bedard and the expectations versus what's been the reality of the first years. Again, Badard's been outstanding his first years in the age. Hard to think of many better 18 and 19-year-olds, but Celebrini translated quicker, easier

than Bedard did. Yeah, I still think Bedard's going to be a true star in the league. I expect him to be one of the elite scores in the league on a consistent basis over the next you know, 10, 15 years. But there was fair to say there were questions about how his game is going to translate. And then it's also fair to say that those questions have manifested themselves in some way. I think we continue to ask, is he going to be a long-term center? Is he hard enough to play against?

Like, can he drive a line by himself? I think he probably can. And I think he's going to be more than fine. You know, he's still only a teenager in the NHL. Like, he's going to be 20 now going into next season. And, you know, I think you're going to see him continue to evolve. especially as Chicago, maybe not now, but over time hopefully surrounds him

with a lot better players. But yeah, I think those are, I think whenever you criticize a guy who people think it's going to go first overall, the pitchforks come out. We saw that with Hagan's last year. I think the first time I suggested that Higgins had issues.

It was, it was, I drew a lot of criticism, you know, social media and the comments, my fellow co-host, even at times too. like, I just all players have weaknesses outside of like Connor McDavid so it's not

the end of the world to suggest now you can disagree with the projection I think there are you know you saw all the way Scott talked about McKenna when we were on our last show I think he kind of would put McKenna more in that Celebrini Bedard here and I know people who

would in the league who have them there and some people who quite frankly don't and it's July right now. So we have a lot of time ahead of us to argue about this. And maybe we could wait for him to play his first game of the season

at his draft year before we start saying who's right or wrong about this player. I know we all love to argue, but there's going to be plenty of time to sort this out. But I don't think it's unheard of to point out some mild issues in a player's game.

No, and I think the point I'm trying to though is that I think as a ramp, like that's the beauty of this avenue now being available, right? It's like, we'll never know how Bedard's transition would have gone had he gotten a bridge year in college hockey, right? But I think McKenna is a great candidate for this where like, he doesn't have to wait for it to be his draft year to do it, right? So he can go and have his draft, or sorry, his draft plus one year to do it. He can go have his draft year there and he can still be a first overall pick who goes right to the NHL, but he'll have played that higher level, that higher tempo. There's other guys I'd love to see do that, right? I mean,

Porter Martone is a, to me, a guy who was good enough in the OHL last year that you could say, does he really have much more to prove? You could also say, is he going to keep up at NHL pace? You'd love to see that bridge year from a guy like that. I'm not aware that Martone's committed to any school right now, so we'll see if that happens or not. But I just love that avenue. And I think he's a great, McKenna is a great case study for why that I think can be advantageous.

Yeah, I mentioned left for an ear earlier. Imagine if he would have played his draft season in college. You know, I don't tend to think you can ruin a guy. development. I don't, but maybe he adjusts to the NHL a little quicker. That could, that could have been possible. In the case like Martault, I agree with you. I think his skating could be an issue for the NHL right away, but I think there are some people within the flyers or, you know, that quite frankly may want him to try and see how he looks at camp, but the issue is you got to make a decision. If you sign that contract, you can't go to college. But I think most reasonable people would

probably look at Martone and say he probably needs one more year outside of the NHL. Or, you know, I've not been a fan of the Kachuk comps for Martone. I think they're a little lazy because he does not play like the Kachucks do with the pestiness and the physicality. But both of them went right to the NHL, even with their skating issues. So I think it'll be a really interesting decision for Martone in Philadelphia on what they decide to do with him. A lot more to come, obviously.

but today the big news is Gavin McKenna going to Penn State, and it's going to make for a very exciting year of college hockey. That's going to do it for this special episode of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Thanks for listening to us. Please, if you're enjoying the show, leave a rating and a review. We'll talk to you soon.