EAST LANSING, Mich. — Gavin McKenna, the top prospect in the 2026 NHL Draft and biggest name in college hockey, faced the biggest test of his freshman year so far on Friday and Saturday when his Penn State Nittany Lions, the No. 3 team in the country, visited the top-ranked Michigan State Spartans.

Just a few months ago, McKenna was weighing the two schools against one another, the Spartans finishing as runners-up in his historic recruiting war. Now he was in enemy territory for the first time.

And the Munnsters, Michigan State’s fan section, conveniently located in the visitor’s corner, let him know, taping signs to the glass as he warmed up both nights that reminded him of the record rumoured — though inaccurate — $750,000 revenue sharing and NIL package he took from Penn State in the summer.

“You can’t buy a win,” read one sign.

“$750K, 1 season, 0 loyalty,” read another.

“Did you pay the refs $750K too?” appeared another midway through the Friday game when the crowd didn’t like some of the officiating.

“(Porter) Martone > McKenna,” read a fourth, highlighting the late-summer addition of the Flyers’ top prospect after McKenna shirked them.

They let him hear it, too.

When he was the last guy off the ice in warmups, they waited for his teammates to all be down the tunnel so that there was no confusion as to who they were booing. Every time he touched the puck in either game, they booed him some more. Though he wasn’t in the starting lineup on Friday night, and therefore not announced individually to the crowd, they booed him when he left the goal line to join his teammates on the blue line for the national anthems, too. When he was in the starting lineup on Saturday, he was the only player they booed. Whenever he bobbled the puck, which he did on a couple of power plays at the offensive zone blue line, resulting in chances back the other way, they cheered.

The Spartans got the last laugh for now, too, taking both games. In both, the team he didn’t choose also looked like the more organized, structured group — and certainly the bigger one, McKenna’s hiked-up pants and slight frame evident.

On Friday, in a 2-1 overtime loss to open the series, McKenna scored the Nittany Lions’ lone goal on a pass to the back post that was initially credited as an assist before being given to him after a review found it deflected off a Spartan and in.

Strong play by Schoen and McKenna stops on a dime and shows off his incredible vision, tie game in East Lansing!!#WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/sdOnr4CeCI

— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) November 8, 2025

Throughout, he flashed his talent level. His first dash of the weekend came a few minutes into the first game when he played a puck around a defender off the right wing to himself. He had a second chance off the rush a few minutes later, a third shot on goal (a third of Penn State’s first four) after he was double-shifted coming out of a video review for head contact. He nearly picked up a second point on a backdoor feed on the power play that JJ Wiebusch failed to convert on, too. He even got involved with Martone, his Team Canada teammate over the years and again at the upcoming World Juniors, after multiple whistles, pulling him out of one scrum and cross-checking him in another (followed by an argument with a ref about it, but no penalty) while Team Canada executive Mark Hunter watched from above.

When Friday’s game was over, he’d scored what would stand as Penn State’s lone goal of the weekend, finished plus-1, registered a game-high seven shots (nearly a third of the 25 his team registered in all), and played a game-high 23:57.

And yet the gathering collection of scouts and hockey folks weren’t kind to him leaving the rink, with multiple NHL scouts commenting to The Athletic over the course of the weekend on his work rate off the puck, a number of back checks he appeared to give up on, pucks he didn’t stop on, and an ongoing desire for more effort.

On Saturday, it was more of the same. He hit an early post on a Penn State power play shortly after a fan in the crowd yelled out “F— YOU, MCKENNA!” He had another dangerous look in front a little later. He double-shifted on the man-advantage. And his feel and vision on the puck flashed. But he also drifted to the perimeter and stood and watched his fair share, and when the first period was over and Penn State trailed 2-0, he’d been on for both of the goals against — one coming on a rush back the other way after he didn’t get to a rimmed puck in the offensive zone. Early in the second, they moved sophomore and leading scorer Charlie Cerrato onto his line with Reese Laubach to try to kickstart their offense and claw their way back into the game. Late in the second, he dashed through the middle, the puck gluing to his stick for another partial rush chance. He hit the trailer inside the offensive zone for a couple of more chances in the third. He found Mac Gadowsky in the slot off of a nice cut inside the offensive zone, too.

All told, this weekend, more of Penn State’s offense came off of his stick than the duo of Cerrato and Wiebusch that has driven so much for them to start the year. And yet it’s hard not to watch him and compare his come-and-go playmaking to the every-shift impact that Macklin Celebrini made at the NCAA level just a couple of years ago — and not come to the conclusion that he is not that. Or to notice that it was McKenna who got caught on the wrong side of the puck with the net empty, leaving Charlie Stramel to push down ice and seal Saturday’s game, which finished 5-0.

Through 12 games, he now has 14 points (four goals, 10 assists), 48 shots on goal, and a minus-4 rating.

These are still very good numbers for a 17-year-old freshman in college hockey who NHL Central Scouting’s latest update lists at 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds. They’re indicative of his immense skill. This is still a young guy who is the reigning CHL Player of the Year, and who last season registered 173 points in 76 combined regular season, playoff and Memorial Cup games — and who also led the WHL in plus-minus at plus-60.

He was still No. 1 on my preliminary 2026 NHL Draft ranking, and I’m not yet ready to call Keaton Verhoeff, Ethan Belchetz or Ivar Stenberg challengers. Had he stayed in Medicine Hat for his draft year, he would have cruised to first overall (though scouts would have also questioned why he didn’t leave).

But what this college hockey season has revealed is that he is also a flawed player, flaws which were more easily hidden beneath the surface in junior (though they did present themselves at times in last year’s World Juniors, and the lone game he played at August’s World Junior Summer Showcase).

His decision to make the move to college was in large part driven by a desire to test himself. And he’s now being tested and scrutinized. People are talking. It’s all, I’m sure, a lot for a young guy his age. But the reality for him, fairly or unfairly, is that if some of the habits persist, the smoke may turn to fire as the season progresses. The truly great ones put those fires out.