Gavin McKenna, a Penn State hockey forward and one of the top prospects for the 2026 NHL Draft, is facing a felony assault charge for allegedly hitting a man in the face in an altercation that resulted in the man needing corrective surgery, police say.<\/p>\n
McKenna, who turned 18 on Dec. 20, was charged with felony aggravated assault on Wednesday in State College, Pa., according to court documents and a statement from the State College Police Department. The native of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, is also facing a misdemeanor assault charge and summary charges of harassment and disorderly conduct for his role in the alleged incident that occurred Saturday.<\/p>\n
In a written statement provided to The Athletic, John Hanna, Penn State athletics\u2019 associate director of strategic communications, said: \u201cWe are aware that charges have been filed; however, as this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not have any further comment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The charges were first reported by Onward State, a Penn State student publication.<\/p>\n
According to the statement and court documents, the incident took place Saturday in the 100 block of South Pugh Street, in State College, at approximately 8:45 p.m. ET. That was hours after the Nittany Lions played Michigan State in an outdoor home game in front of nearly 75,000 fans at Beaver Stadium.<\/p>\n
McKenna allegedly struck a 21-year-old man in the face during the altercation, with the man suffering facial injuries that required corrective surgery, police say. McKenna was arraigned on the charges Wednesday and released on $20,000 unsecure bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 11.<\/p>\n
The maximum penalty for first-degree felony aggravated assault in Pennsylvania is 20 years in prison and\/or a $25,000 fine.<\/p>\n
McKenna is in his first season with the Nittany Lions after three seasons in the junior-level Western Hockey League, during which he emerged as a potential No. 1 NHL Draft pick \u2014 and as the first hockey player worthy of a six-figure NIL deal, a major factor in his stunning jump from Canadian juniors to the Big Ten. Once considered the top draft-eligible prospect, McKenna was ranked at No. 4 on The Athletic\u2019s most recent list of prospects<\/a>, owing largely to an uneven first few months of NCAA hockey.<\/p>\n In 26 games this season, McKenna has 11 goals and 21 assists, which ties him for the team lead with 32 points. Penn State has eight regular-season games remaining on its schedule. The 2026 NHL Draft is scheduled for June 26 and 27 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gavin McKenna, a Penn State hockey forward and one of the top prospects for the 2026 NHL Draft,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,325,6,12,1106],"class_list":{"0":"post-583584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-sports","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-draft","12":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116016686188932328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}