Is it time to worry about Gavin McKenna?
Whoever it was that coined the term “generational” to describe hockey prospects, I’d like to shake their hand.
The “G-word” has been hockey media’s go-to adjective to identify those prospects for whom “elite” or “top-tier” doesn’t quite do justice. You know? Those prospects that supposedly come around once per generation. Has the term come to be overused? Yeah, probably. But that doesn’t mean it still can’t be applied accurately.
The latest prospect to be given the “generational” label is forward Gavin McKenna. The Whitehorse, Yukon native dazzled for three seasons with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers, including a 2024-25 campaign in which he scored 41 goals and added 88 assists for 129 points in just 56 games. Taking advantage of the recent rule change allowing CHL players to transfer to the NCAA, McKenna took his talents to the Penn State Nittany Lions this season. Playing against much older competition in college, the 17-year-old star has put up just four goals and 11 assists for 15 points in 14 games. While that’s solid production, it’s not the “generational” pace some may have expected.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Daily Faceoff’s prospect and draft analyst Steven Ellis to discuss the level of concern there should be around McKenna’s unspectacular start.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Gavin McKenna continues to be a hot topic. Obviously the the projected number-one overall pick for 2026. He isn’t quite dominating the college ranks, though, the way some people thought he would. Are you concerned with what we’ve seen from McKenna at Penn State?
Steven Ellis: I’m not. I think part of it is, you look at Penn State as a whole, they just lost 7-1 to the University of Michigan, they were shut out by Michigan State and they only had one goal in two games against them. Penn State as a whole just isn’t a great team. They’ve got a couple good older players, but it’s still a young group of a lot of guys that are still trying to find their way. 15 points in 14 games as a 17-year old is extremely impressive, regardless of who you are in the NCAA. One thing, though, you have to look at is Macklin Celebrini came in at the same age and was significantly better. Adam Fantilli, same thing. There have been examples of players in similar situations the last couple of years that have done so much better.
So what’s the deal? I think part of it is Penn State’s not a super deep team. He doesn’t have a ton of high-end skill to work with. The other element is that he’s not engaging with every play like he probably should. There are games out there where it feels like he’s more of a passenger and he’s not driving the play. For a guy that had 41 goals in the WHL last year, he’s on pace for something like 11 or 12 in the NCAA. It is a bid adjustment going from the WHL to the NCAA, but that being said, he has to do a lot of things on his own. I feel like if he was somewhere like Michigan State or the University of Michigan we’d be talking about him putting up 50 or 60 points pretty easily. I’m not concerned. Obviously you want to see a bit more, but I still think you see those high-end elements in his game where he’s going to be a star prospect.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…