Seventeen-year-old Canadian winger Gavin McKenna, widely projected to be the first selection in the 2026 NHL Draft, announced on ESPN’s SportsCenter that he will join Penn State for the 2025-26 season. McKenna chose the Nittany Lions over Michigan State, becoming the highest-profile recruit in NCAA hockey history. His decision is the most significant to follow the NCAA’s November 2024 ruling that restored eligibility for Canadian Hockey League players. Multiple outlets report McKenna has secured a name-image-likeness package worth roughly US$700,000, believed to be the largest ever for a college hockey player and a marker of the sport’s rapidly evolving economics. McKenna departs the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers after a 2024-25 campaign in which he amassed 129 points—41 goals and 88 assists—in 56 games, recorded a 40-plus-game points streak and was named CHL Player of the Year, the third-youngest recipient after Sidney Crosby and John Tavares. His arrival bolsters a Penn State program that reached its first Frozen Four in April and has also added Columbus Blue Jackets first-round defenseman Jackson Smith and several other CHL standouts. The commitment underscores a growing shift in North American player development, with NCAA programs now competing directly with the CHL for elite teenage talent.