STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — In October, Gavin McKenna played his first game in “Hockey Valley.” On Wednesday, he may have played his last.
The five-month interim, for one of the highest-profile freshmen in the history of NCAA hockey, has followed an eventful loop. In some ways, McKenna is finishing his season with the Penn State Nittany Lions as he began it: He’s a wildly productive, often-electrifying offensive talent worthy of the No. 1 pick in the NHL Draft, and a teenage left winger with a game underdeveloped enough to cost him the top spot.
Six weeks ago, though, it looked like his season was going to be defined by what happened off the ice. On Jan. 31, McKenna, 18, allegedly punched a 21-year-old man after what police called “an exchange of words” — some of which, according to a source close to McKenna who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing legal issue, were directed at a member of McKenna’s family. (Authorities have not shared details about the exchange, and the other person involved in the altercation has not spoken publicly.) The altercation occurred outside of a parking garage near Doggie’s, a State College bar that, according to police documents, McKenna had patronized with a group earlier that night.
The news broke on Feb. 4. McKenna initially faced a charge of felony first-degree aggravated assault. On Feb. 6, the Centre County District Attorney dropped the felony charge, announcing that a review of video evidence failed to establish that McKenna “acted with the intent to cause serious bodily injury or acted recklessly under circumstances showing an extreme indifference to the value of human life,” which is necessary to support such a charge. What the D.A. called a police “follow-up” also confirmed that the man was not injured as seriously as described in the probable cause affidavit.
McKenna still faces a misdemeanor assault charge. He is next scheduled to appear at a formal arraignment before a judge on April 8.
Even before that night off the ice on Jan. 31, there had been a months-long swell of noise around McKenna and his play on it, from October into mid-December when he left campus for the World Juniors.
When The Athletic spoke to NHL scouts on an early November weekend in East Lansing, Mich., as Penn State visited Michigan State, they weren’t kind to McKenna, who that summer had been touted as one of the biggest freshmen recruits in men’s college hockey history.
Four months later, when The Athletic surveyed six scouts for this story — including a couple who weren’t fans of his play in the fall — they’d softened, helped by a run of 11 goals and 33 points in 16 NCAA games since the calendar changed to 2026, including an all-timer in an eight-point night against Ohio State on Feb. 20. After his lone goal of the game, his first at Pegula Ice Arena since the arrest, McKenna hit his own version of UFC legend Conor McGregor’s “Billionaire Strut” celebration.
“I was just having fun out there. There’s a lot of stuff going on in my life right now,” McKenna said after Penn State’s 11-4 win. “So being out on the rink, being with the guys, that’s my happiness … I just thought I’d show some personality.”
Four of the scouts The Athletic spoke with called the outstanding misdemeanor charge something they’d want to talk to him about and seek clarifications around, but also felt it wasn’t likely to “really play a factor” in decision-making on draft day. The scouts were granted anonymity to speak freely about an upcoming draft prospect.
“Put it this way,” one scout said. “If McKenna was the clear-cut No. 1 and the gap/conversation wasn’t as tight as it’s become, and with what we know now, he’s still going No. 1 with what happened (near) that bar.”
Many of the scouts The Athletic spoke to seem to believe that McKenna was provoked. Two NHL scouting directors went as far as to say “the charges don’t bother me at all” or call them a “non-issue.”
It’s not nothing for everyone, though.
“If the information out there is true, it’s really unfortunate that other people act that way,” said one scout. “(But it) would not have been my first choice to respond that way. I guess with that, the McGregor celebration, and zero detail in his game, I do have some whiff of immaturity or entitlement now.”
What remains, for now, is a situation that frequently is resolved without prison time, and, on a parallel track, an on-ice reputation that has regained some of the luster that had begun to fade. That progress has come under a considerable deal of scrutiny, including at the team level; before their win over Minnesota, even with McKenna in the midst of a scoring binge, the Nittany Lions had gone 2-6-2 in their previous 10 games, the latest leg in an uneven regular season that they began as the No. 4 team in the country.
“I think we’ve learned a lot, myself and our staff,” Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky said on Wednesday when asked how his team, writ large, handles pressure. “I’ve said this before, but I think a lot of what we’ve learned has actually come from watching (McKenna). He’s the only one that’s dealt with a lot of distractions and eyeballs and what’s written and said. … And he has a great way about him of just being very confident in his values, what he stands for, and what he can control.”
One scouting director argued that those who doubted whether strong point production would come were always going to end up on the wrong side of the McKenna debate.
“Questioning McKenna’s production is a bet you are always going to lose,” he said. “Was just a matter of time.”
Four of the scouts credited him for strong play at both the World Juniors and after returning, with one director going as far as to say he has been “excellent” since the tournament and another saying he has “relieved some concerns” after a “questionable start to the season due to his physical engagement, toughness level, (and) puck pressure.”
Asked where he’d seen growth in McKenna since the start of the season, on and off the ice, Gadowsky mentioned his work in Penn State’s weight room, where he has access to amenities not typically available in the Canadian Hockey League, where McKenna played parts of three seasons with the Medicine Hat Tigers and put up 244 points in 150 games.
“Junior hockey is completely different. You’re on the bus a ton, you’re playing a ton of games, you don’t have the facilities, you don’t have the strength and the conditioning coaches, you don’t have the nutrition,” Gadowsky said. “(He) knew that was something in him, as an athlete, he could improve.”
Though there’s still no consensus No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, and McKenna isn’t going to lap the field like Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini did (even with a strong conference tournament and potentially national tournament), one scout joked, “He’s going No. 1 to Vancouver,” and another said he has again made the conversation at the top interesting.
There are still questions, to be sure.
“I still do have concerns with his play and desire away from the puck,” said one of the directors.
“I think his play’s been fine. I wouldn’t say he’s grown his game or been lights out at Penn State,” said a scout. “It seems to be a very loose league and environment. How special is he? I think he’s really good, but I don’t know if he’s (Patrick) Kane, franchise level.”
Others expect that teams will again sour on him leading into the draft as the Stanley Cup playoffs get harder and heavier. That “seems to happen yearly,” one scout said.
Gadowsky, asked about how continued high-end production from McKenna could change his team’s ceiling, immediately pivoted to praising his work without the puck.
“When he changes, when he backchecks, his stick — he does so much more than I think what you’re referring to. He is a difference-maker,” Gadowsky said. “This kid is world-class.”
On a recent phone call, Willie Desjardins, McKenna’s former coach with the Medicine Hat Tigers — the team he left for college hockey after leading to a WHL championship — wished his old star “all the best.”
“You only get one side of things. You don’t get the full story. There’s always more to stories. So you just have to wait until everything comes out and you hear what happened,” Desjardins, a former NHL coach, said. “He was great for us, he played hard, and that’s all you can ever ask for from a player.”
What McKenna has earned is more time to win over his detractors, starting Saturday night, when Penn State travels to Yost Arena for a Big Ten semifinal game against top-ranked Michigan. A trip to the NCAA Tournament almost certainly awaits, as does the NHL Draft Scouting Combine in June.