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Who the Toronto Maple Leafs Are Getting in Penn State's Gavin McKenna

The freshman forward is the first Nittany Lions hockey player to go No. 1 overall in the NHL Draft.
Chase Fisher|
Penn State Nittany Lions forward Gavin McKenna before the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft at KeyBank Center.
Penn State Nittany Lions forward Gavin McKenna before the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft at KeyBank Center. | Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images

Penn State forward Gavin McKenna was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs with the first overall pick of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft on Friday. McKenna became the first player in Penn State hockey history to be drafted No. 1 overall and just the second to be selected in the first round following teammate Jackson Smith last year.

McKenna joins Penn State football players Ki-Jana Carter (1995) and Courtney Brown (2000) as the only Nittany Lions to be selected first overall in a major North American professional draft. While his decision isn’t official yet, McKenna most likely will go to the NHL instead of returning to college. Barring a drastic move to stay at Penn State for a sophomore year, McKenna finished his Nittany Lions tenure with 51 points, 15 goals and 36 assists in 35 games. 

“My goal is to play in the NHL, and if my team wants me to sign, then that’s my goal,” McKenna said after Penn State’s season ended in the NCAA Tournament. “So we’ll see what happens after the draft.”

Here’s what the Maple Leafs are getting in McKenna, who has been called a generational hockey talent.

Building Penn State's hockey brand

Despite playing just one season, McKenna left a substantial imprint on Penn State hockey. A program that was just a club team 14 years ago played in a sold-out Pegula Ice Arena for nearly every home game last season. 

Blue-and-white McKenna jerseys were scattered everywhere in Hockey Valley — at Pegula, on the streets, even in classrooms and bars. 

Finding Penn State hockey jerseys in State College before McKenna was a rarity. While the 2025 Frozen Four run gave Nittany Lions hockey more traction, McKenna elevated Penn State hockey into a national brand.  

Dominance on the ice

He did some pretty cool things on the ice, too. 

McKenna holds the single-season program records for assists (36) and points per game (1.46). He generated a school-record eight points (with seven assists) in the Nittany Lions’ February win over Ohio State. McKenna shattered the previous single-game record of five points, held by Andrew Sturtz (2017) and Connor McMenamin (2021). 

McKenna’s 51-point mark was the second-highest in a single Penn State season, behind Aiden Fink’s 53 in 2024-25, and set a freshman points record. McKenna led the nation in assists per game (1.03) and ranked second in points per game (1.46).

And there’s more. He became the just second Penn State player to finish as a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, given annually to the top player in college hockey, while also being the first Nittany Lion to win Big Ten Freshman of the Year and the Big Ten scoring title (38 points).

This all came after an underwhelming first half of last season, by McKenna’s standards, during which he totaled 19 points in 16 games. He faced plenty of criticism geared primarily toward whether he actually was the consensus best prospect in this year’s draft.

But McKenna silenced the critics when he returned from World Juniors, going on a torrid run in the second half and posting 32 points in his next 18 contests.

Before joining Penn State, McKenna was a dazzling prospect. He became the third-youngest player to win the CHL’s player-of-the-year award in 2025, behind just Pittsburgh Penguin Sidney Crosby and now-teammate John Tavares. McKenna was a true phenom of a prospect, totaling 129 points in the regular season that year, which included a 54-game points streak that extended into the playoffs.

Scouting report on Gavin McKenna

McKenna made a living at Penn State through his pristine passing skills. The Canadian’s best trait is his vision, which will pair well with Toronto center Auston Matthews, who has scored 428 goals in just 689 games. 

He can do just about everything, though. Many, including McKenna himself, compared him to Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov because of his ability to control the game and make everyone play at his pace. He demonstrated that nightly at Penn State. 

McKenna is undoubtedly a deft passer but also has a nice shot when he decides to use it. While it’s not a powerful one, the shot is quick and precise. There was some criticism during the 2025-26 season of McKenna not shooting enough, but he let the puck rip in the second half.

Further, McKenna is an exceptional stickhandler and skater. It’s rare to see a defender strip him of the puck, especially in 1-on-1 situations. To gauge his skating, watch McKenna’s overtime goal above against Ohio State on Feb. 21. He isn’t the fastest with his feet, but he’s slick and can easily move around defenders. 

McKenna is the 18th Penn State men’s hockey player selected in the NHL Draft. He’s also the second Nittany Lion to go in a first round this month. Tessa Janecke, who led the Penn State women to their first Frozen Four, was selected third overall by Las Vegas in the recent PWHL Draft. She was among a program-record seven Nittany Lions drafted.

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Chase Fisher
CHASE FISHER

Chase Fisher is a student at Penn State University who has covered men's hockey and baseball for The Daily Collegian. He is covering football for Penn State on SI. Follow him on X @chase_fisher4.

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