{"id":115073,"date":"2025-07-07T21:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T21:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/115073\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T21:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T21:38:11","slug":"nhl-super-prospect-gavin-mckenna-makes-his-college-decision-between-penn-state-michigan-state-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/115073\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL super prospect Gavin McKenna makes his college decision between Penn State, Michigan State"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The greatest prospect of his generation has decided on his college hockey home.<\/p>\n<p>Gavin McKenna will be attending Penn State University, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Hockey_Robinson\/status\/1942300871834185919\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:according to Elite Prospects insider Cam Robinson;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">according to Elite Prospects insider Cam Robinson<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a massive decision in the college hockey world, as McKenna chose the Nittany Lions over his other finalist, Michigan State.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>McKenna had also considered Michigan and Denver before narrowing his list down.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a groundbreaking decision in general, because players of McKenna&#8217;s ilk generally haven&#8217;t chosen to be NCAA hockey players before. It&#8217;s a bit like if Connor McDavid or Sidney Crosby had chosen to play in the Big Ten the year before they were drafted.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nhl\/news\/red-wings-forward-announces-shock-nhl-retirement-age-28\/fd7c384657cac233287fc9e6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Red Wings forward announces shock NHL retirement at age 28;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Red Wings forward announces shock NHL retirement at age 28<\/a><\/p>\n<p>McKenna is currently the heavy favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>The superstar forward has been playing with the WHL&#8217;s Medicine Hat Tigers.<\/p>\n<p>In 56 games for the Tigers in 2024-25, McKenna had 129 points, including 41 goals. He added 38 points (nine goals) in 16 playoff games.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The young Canadian could have lots of different reasons for choosing to go to college, including the potential benefits of NIL for earning income before even reaching the NHL ranks.<\/p>\n<p>But regardless of his reasoning, it&#8217;s a massive decision.<\/p>\n<p>Penn State will immediately have national championship expectations. McKenna will also be a bit easier to watch in the U.S. as teams potentially tank for the generational prospect.<\/p>\n<p>And on campus in Happy Valley, he&#8217;s sure to be an instant sensation, a shooting star for a year before he goes off to bigger and better things.<\/p>\n<p>MORE NHL NEWS:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The greatest prospect of his generation has decided on his college hockey home. Gavin McKenna will be attending&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4839,1880,155,766,20589,5,767,15603,4,465,20590,20588,3358,768],"class_list":{"0":"post-115073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-cam-robinson","9":"tag-college-hockey","10":"tag-connor-mcdavid","11":"tag-gavin-mckenna","12":"tag-groundbreaking-decision","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-medicine-hat-tigers","15":"tag-michigan-state","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-nhl-draft","18":"tag-nittany-lions","19":"tag-penn-state-university","20":"tag-red-wings","21":"tag-sidney-crosby"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114814118194655249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}