Gavin McKenna is already making an impact in the NCAA

Welcome to the Gavin McKenna Show, college hockey nation.

The player who many believe will be the first overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft made a significant impact on the opening weekend of Penn State University’s 2025-26 season. To start off his freshman campaign, McKenna assisted on the Nittany Lions’ first two goals against Arizona State on Friday night. Then, in the second meeting against the Sun Devils on the weekend, the 17-year-old scored what ended up being the game-winning goal in a 4-2 win, helping Penn State complete a sweep in Tempe.

It’s a strong start for what’s going to be a highly scrutinized season for McKenna, who made waves for electing to pursue college hockey rather than stay in the Western Hockey League. However, if he can show the offensive prowess he did this past weekend for the entire year, he’ll definitely bolster his stock as the future No. 1 pick, and possibly take home the Hobey Baker Award.

On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss how impressive McKenna’s NCAA debut was this past weekend.

Carter Hutton: This was obviously the highly anticipated debut of Gavin McKenna for me at Penn State. He played at ASU, getting his first taste of the student section at ASU. Forks up, right? That’s their saying. And what do you do? After he nails his goal, he goes forks-down to the crowd. He was playing the villain role. His two assists on Friday were unbelievable. High traffic area. Then he scores a huge goal. After the game, too, what I loved was him going over to the student section and whacking his stick on the glass…I can’t imagine what Gavin McKenna is getting into…what’s going on with him, and obviously, being the biggest prospect coming in, the money he’s making. So, for him to perform on that big stage…three points in his first two is a great start for him.

Tyler Yaremchuk: This is just so nasty. Mike Barner – who does a bunch of really good social content around the NHL – he had a great tweet being like, ‘Isn’t this way cooler than traveling on a bus to Wenatchee and beating a team 8-2 because you’re way too good for the level?’ I love the CHL, but the fact that these kind of high-end prospects, like a McKenna, can go to a level where the competition’s a little bit better, they’re playing against older players, and the atmosphere, like, this is just so electric.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…