{"id":446056,"date":"2026-02-05T00:21:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T00:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/446056\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T00:21:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T00:21:20","slug":"penn-states-gavin-mckenna-facing-felony-charge-over-alleged-bar-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/446056\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State&#8217;s Gavin McKenna facing felony charge over alleged bar assault"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Top hockey prospect Gavin McKenna is facing a felony aggravated assault charge in State College stemming from an arrest over the weekend, according to court documents viewed by The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The freshman Penn State hockey forward has also been charged with misdemeanor simple assault and two summary offenses \u2014 harassment and disorderly conduct \u2014 for the alleged Jan. 31 incident.<\/p>\n<p>Under Pennsylvania law, McKenna, considered by many to be the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/07\/08\/sports\/gavin-mckenna-officially-commits-to-penn-state\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">favorite to go No. 1 overall<\/a> in the 2026 NHL Draft, is facing up to 20 years in jail and\/or a $25,000 fine for the first-degree felony aggravated assault charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38390598\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_ams_bm2_054.jpg\" alt=\"Penn State Nittany Lions forward Gavin McKenna (72) looks to shoot the puck during the first period against the Michigan State Spartans at Beaver Stadium.\" class=\"wp-image-38390598\"  \/>Penn State Nittany Lions forward Gavin McKenna (72) looks to shoot the puck during the first period against the Michigan State Spartans at Beaver Stadium. Matthew O&#8217;Haren-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The purported incident occurred Saturday night, following Penn State\u2019s outdoor game at Beaver Stadium against Michigan State while the team was at a bar in downtown State College with friends and family, according to student-run outlet Onward State, <a href=\"https:\/\/onwardstate.com\/2026\/02\/04\/gavin-mckenna-facing-felony-charges-over-incident-at-doggies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">which first reported<\/a> the charges.\u00a0It\u2019s unclear what led to the apparent incident, but the outlet reported that McKenna allegedly assaulted someone and left them with a broken jaw.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Penn State Athletics told The Post that the university is \u201c aware that charges have been filed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, as this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not have any further comment,\u201d the spokesperson added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>No preliminary hearing has been scheduled, but online court documents showed that Magisterial District Judge Casey McClain had been assigned the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38390600\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP_McKenna_Arrested_Hockey_63813-b1b8a-0.jpg\" alt=\"Canada forward Gavin McKenna (9) controls the puck during the second period of an IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship bronze medal game against Finland, Jan. 5, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn.\" class=\"wp-image-38390600\"  \/>Canada forward Gavin McKenna (9) controls the puck during the second period of an IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship bronze medal game against Finland, Jan. 5, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. AP<\/p>\n<p>McKenna scored Penn State\u2019s second goal in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Spartans. His jersey from the <a href=\"https:\/\/desktop.livesourceapp.com\/home;county=Centre%20County;eventName=Men&#039;s%20Hockey%20Beaver%20Stadium%20Jersey%20Auction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">game is being auctioned off<\/a>, with the highest bid sitting at $8,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He leads the Nittany Lions with 32 points in 24 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prior to arriving at Penn State, McKenna spent three seasons playing for the WHL\u2019s Medicine Hat Tigers. He has represented Canada several times on the international stage, including this year\u2019s World Junior Hockey Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Penn State\u2019s men\u2019s hockey team is not scheduled to play again until Feb. 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top hockey prospect Gavin McKenna is facing a felony aggravated assault charge in State College stemming from an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[462],"tags":[54221,2144,1880,5,4,465,466,10551,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-446056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-draft","8":"tag-athlete-arrests","9":"tag-big-ten","10":"tag-college-hockey","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-nhl-draft","14":"tag-nhl-entry-draft","15":"tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116015169395634316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446056","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=446056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}