{"id":450088,"date":"2026-02-07T09:31:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/450088\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T09:31:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:31:39","slug":"gavin-mckenna-top-prospect-for-the-2026-nhl-draft-facing-assault-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/450088\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin McKenna, top prospect for the 2026 NHL draft, facing assault charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada forward Gavin McKenna during the second period of a IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship pre-tournament game against Sweden in London, Ont., in December.Nicole Osborne\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Gavin McKenna, a top prospect for the 2026 NHL draft, is facing assault charges.<\/p>\n

McKenna, a freshman at Penn State, has been charged with aggravated assault by police in State College, Pa. He\u2019s also charged with misdemeanour simple assault, disorderly conduct, engaging in fighting and harassment.<\/p>\n

The incident date listed in the filing is Jan. 31. The criminal complaint was filed Wednesday by State College Police.<\/p>\n

Aggravated assault is the most serious assault charge under Pennsylvania law and is classified as a felony.<\/p>\n

With McKenna as top prospect, NHL chooses Buffalo Sabres to host draft in June<\/a><\/p>\n

Court records show the case is awaiting a preliminary hearing, with no disposition entered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware that charges have been filed; however, as this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not have any further comment,\u201d John Hanna, Penn State\u2019s associate director of strategic communications, said in an e-mail to The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

McKenna, 18, of Whitehorse, Yukon, spent three seasons with the Western Hockey League\u2019s Medicine Hat Tigers before committing to Penn State.<\/p>\n

This season, McKenna has 11 goals and 21 assists in 24 games with the Nittany Lions.<\/p>\n

McKenna has twice played at the world junior hockey championship and helped Canada win bronze last month in Minneapolis-St. Paul, finishing second in tournament scoring with 14 points in seven games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canada forward Gavin McKenna during the second period of a IIHF World Junior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[462],"tags":[1018,1001,1019,967,991,1020,19,990,1008,1009,1004,992,989,1014,1016,1013,1007,1000,1030,993,994,1006,5,1002,1003,997,1021,998,1025,1026,4,465,466,1028,1023,1027,786,1024,995,1011,1012,333,1010,1022,86,1015,1017,1005,999,996,1029],"class_list":["post-450088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl-draft","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-hockey","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-draft","tag-nhl-entry-draft","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450088","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=450088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}