Gavin McKenna finished his freshman season at Penn State with 51 points and now sits at No. 1 in NHL Central Scouting’s final ranking of North American skaters, setting him up as the leading name in the Nhl Draft conversation. The left wing is expected by many to go first overall to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2026 NHL Draft.
The draft itself is set for June 26-27 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, with the first round on June 26 at 7 p.m. ET and rounds 2-7 on June 27 at 11 a.m. ET. For McKenna, the timing matters because his college season is already in the books, and his numbers give the ranking real weight: 15 goals, 36 assists and 1.46 points per game in 35 games, good for a share of fifth in the NCAA and second in scoring rate.
That production did more than fill a stat sheet. McKenna was a top 10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, won the Big Ten scoring title and set or tied nine school records in a season that made him the first-ever men's ice hockey player from Penn State to be viewed as a likely first-round pick. He was also one of 175 Canadian Hockey League players to make the jump in 2025-26, the first season they were eligible in the NCAA, after spending parts of three seasons with Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League.
He said the year changed him. McKenna said he matured on and off the ice, learned how to cook meals and handle the little things adults have to do, and figured out how to produce against older and stronger players. He said college was the reason he went to the NCAA in the first place, and that the season gave him the kind of experience he wanted before his next step.
Even with the draft noise growing louder, the scrutiny never really let up. McKenna has faced criticism online and nights when the pressure felt heavy, the kind of weight that comes with being talked about as a No. 1 pick before the pick is even made. What steadied him was his grandfather, Joe Mason, a 72-year-old survivor of Canada's Indian residential school system who told him he was left in the mountains as a boy and had to survive on his own for three or four days. McKenna said that history changed how he sees bad games and rough weeks, because what he is dealing with never feels as large after hearing what Mason endured. The only question left is whether the 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo turns that expectation into a formal start to his NHL career.
