{"id":456148,"date":"2026-02-05T20:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456148\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T20:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:23:14","slug":"gavin-mckenna-projected-no-1-nhl-draft-pick-charged-with-felony-assault-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456148\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin McKenna, projected No. 1 NHL draft pick, charged with felony assault &#8211; National"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\tBy Staff<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Canadian Press\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted February 5, 2026 9:51 am<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tUpdated February 5, 2026 12:46 pm\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t1 min read\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>Penn State <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/hockey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hockey<\/a> star\u00a0Gavin McKenna, a freshman centre and the presumptive top pick in this summer\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/nhl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NHL<\/a> draft, has been charged with felony assault following an incident on January 31.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>McKenna, 18, struck a 21-year-old male in the face during the altercation, according to\u00a0<a title=\"https:\/\/content.civicplus.com\/api\/assets\/9f743ee2-02e0-4bde-80df-3e66956c6c3a?cache=1800\" href=\"https:\/\/content.civicplus.com\/api\/assets\/9f743ee2-02e0-4bde-80df-3e66956c6c3a?cache=1800\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the incident report<\/a>. The male sustained multiple facial fractures that required surgery.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGavin McKenna, of Whitehorse, participates in a drill during Canada\u2019s National Junior Team training camp in Niagara Falls, Ont., Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tTHE CANADIAN PRESS\/Nick Iwanyshyn\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>McKenna was also charged with simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct, according to court documents. His representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'A look back at the trial that rocked the hockey world: World junior stars face allegations of sexual assault'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MON_HOCKEY_ASSAULT_SITE_THUMB_221225.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t6:45<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA look back at the trial that rocked the hockey world: World junior stars face allegations of sexual assault\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\tPrevious Video<\/p>\n<p>\t\tNext Video<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11651862\/canadians-experience-low-income\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770322993_464_CP167589946.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tThese are the Canadians with \u2018consistent low income,\u2019 new data shows\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11653259\/nine-toronto-police-officers-arrested-organized-crime\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770322993_228_d68a9576095a7eca05cb6bf9b66784ffd4d8891f3b7ee80b7ed39617437c8061.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tAt least 9 Toronto police officers arrested in organized crime investigation: sources\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>McKenna was arraigned and released on $20,000 unsecured bail.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n<p>A preliminary hearing is scheduled for February 11.<\/p>\n<p>The incident happened in the hours after Penn State lost to No. 2 Michigan State in an outdoor game at Beaver Stadium, home of the Nittany Lions football team.<\/p>\n<p>McKenna, who is from Whitehorse, Yukon, has 11 goals and 21 assists in 24 games this season for the Nittany Lions. He decided to play for Penn State after the NCAA lifted its ban on Canadian Hockey League players competing at the Division I level.<\/p>\n<p>A name, image and likeness deal with the Nittany Lions helped sway McKenna to join a program that has been at the Division I level for less than 15 years.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>McKenna recently had four goals and six assists at the World Junior Championships while helping Canada to a bronze medal.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Staff The Canadian Press Posted February 5, 2026 9:51 am Updated February 5, 2026 12:46 pm 1&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,56629,43,5239,187097,44,82,41,39,42,40,519],"class_list":["post-456148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-canada","tag-gavin-mckenna","tag-headlines","tag-hockey","tag-hockey-draft","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}