Gavin McKenna commits, a unique chapter for Penn State follows

Hockey Valley will be the center of the College Hockey universe

Gavin McKenna, the presumed No. 1 overall pick in next year’s NHL Entry Draft - and a generational talent - has reportedly committed to Penn State.

My own confirmation will come beyond the paywall, you’ll see why later…

In the details, the Nittany Lions and Michigan State were the longtime favorites to land McKenna, a player who will spend the next year treading water until he’s eligible for the draft [McKenna is 17, the draft is only for players from ages 18 to 20]. Penn State had been the leader in the clubhouse according to NHL insiders, but Michigan State made a late run.

In the meanwhile, McKenna could brute force Penn State to a national title. Of course as Penn State has long known, winning takes four lines, a goalie and some luck. How many of those things come along with McKenna’s time on campus remains to be seen.

Then again if Flyers No. 6 overall draft choice Porter Martone joins McKenna in State College (something that could very well happen if Martone doesn’t make the Flyers) it’ll be harder and harder not to pencil Penn State in for a deep postseason run, no matter the rest.

All of that aside, at its core, it’s an incredible moment in the program’s history. In some ways Penn State is going to have a weird relationship with McKenna, who will be on campus long enough to get from Point A to Point B. Whatever rea$ons McKenna chose Penn State over everyone else, there is a degree of truth to the fact he’s only going to Penn State because he has to go somewhere if he’s not staying in the WHL.

But in exchange, Penn State will get to put McKenna’s face on every wall it can find and turn the most electric prospect in hockey into an attraction. In a way the relationship works out perfect. Penn State gets all the benefits of being associated with McKenna while McKenna gets all the benefits of getting paid a lot of money while learning the finer things about basket weaving for a few months. If Duke can build a basketball program on one-and-dones, there’s no reason Penn State can’t dabble in that either.

From 10,000 feet it’s hard to deny the moment this is for Penn State men’s hockey and Penn State at-large. However transactional the relationship might be, it also qualifies as one of the biggest recruiting moments in the history of Penn State athletics and in a general sense, one of the biggest moments in the history of the athletic department just by the sheer weight of it all.

Time will tell what comes of all of this. Penn State is no longer with the services of longtime Guy Gadowsky assistant Keith Fisher who left the program this offseason for a well overdue head coaching gig. In turn, Gadowsky is flanked by two former players in Andrew Sturtz and Vince Pedrie in addition to goaltender specialist Juliano Pagliero. In some ways, McKenna comes with the software already installed so the actual developmental part is limited to a degree, but with two assistants who have only just gotten their feet wet in coaching means a lot of the heavy lifting will fall on Gadowsky.

But this is a problem Gadowsky is happy to have. Sure beats facing McKenna 4+ times next year.

Speaking of which - the paywall.