McKenna addition giant step in growth of Penn State hockey program

Pegula Ice Arena on the campus of Penn State University is a hockey player's dream.

The $100 million facility has a state-of-the-art weight room, underwater treadmill, a sports nutrition area. The 5,704-seat palace also has a dedicated and raucous student section.

"It's all hockey all the time," Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky said. "This building is for [the players]. It's a wonderful thing."

But for all its high-priced amenities, the one item that helped put Penn State hockey in the national spotlight is a ping-pong table.

That's where Gadowsky immediately bonded with Gavin McKenna during his recruiting visit. A few months later, McKenna, a generational talent projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, announced on ESPN's "SportsCenter" on July 8 he would be taking his talents to Happy Valley.

It was a monumental moment for college hockey and especially for a Penn State program that just 13 years ago was a club team. Now, entering the 2025-26 season, the Nittany Lions are in the upper crust of NCAA hockey.

But how did the program get here?

"So many people that have been doing a lot of work for the program since its inception," Gadowsky said. "I guess it's just the law of the farm, that you keep doing the job, and eventually you get rewarded for it."

Terry Pegula, a Penn State alum, planted the seeds that led to the Nittany Lions harvesting the bounty that is McKenna.

A few months before he bought the Buffalo Sabres in February 2011, it was an $88 million gift (later raised to $102 million) from Pegula and his wife, Kim, announced Sept. 17, 2010, that funded men's and women's Division I hockey programs as well as the construction of what now is known as Pegula Ice Arena.

Gadowsky was hired in 2011 as coach and tasked with building a team for its D-I launch for the 2012-13 season.

"It was a lot of work to start the program, to get a foundation which attracted other players that were trying to take it to a new level," he said. "And it just doesn't happen right away."

Pegula Ice Arena, home of the Penn State men's and women's hockey teams, opened during the 2012-13 season.

Among the players in Gadowsky's first recruiting class was forward Tommy Olczyk, son of long-time NHL player and broadcaster Eddie Olczyk.

All Gadowsky had to sell was the future, which included one final season of club hockey in 2011-12 before the jump to D-I.

"That was probably the biggest deterrent, was the fact, hey, I played in the USHL for four years, I think I'm a little better than playing club hockey," Olczyk said.

But Olczyk got to know Gadowsky and his staff. He saw the blueprints for Pegula Ice Arena. He got to experience the campus life in State College, Pennsylvania.

He began to see what was possible.

Not only did Olczyk sign on, he set the tone for what was to come.

"Tommy Olczyk, when he was on his recruiting visit ... he said, I'm coming here, and what really excites me is what's going to happen 10 years after I graduate," Gadowsky said. "I want to be really proud of what was built here. And that struck the entire coaching staff. I think we felt that way [but] I don't think anybody verbalized it better than Tommy Olczyk, and he did it right on his recruiting visit. He was really adamant, I cannot wait to see where this program goes and have pride in what was built."

What was built has been a steady climb toward individual player and team success.

Penn State went 13-14 playing as an independent in 2012-13, which included a move into Pegula Ice Arena halfway through the season.

The building has been a game-changer. In addition to top-level player amenities, it includes a student section known as the Roar Zone, a raucous two-level end zone section behind the net defended by the opposition in the first and third periods.

The Penn State student cheering section at Pegula Ice Arena is known as the Roar Zone

"When Mr. Pegula built the facility, he was very blunt about, I want to make sure this is the most convenient facility for hockey players," Gadowsky said. "So we have everything right in here. I mean, I've never seen a better hockey weight room and it's literally 10 feet across the hall from our locker room. They thought of making sure that we have great nutrition right in the locker room area, everything from the underwater treadmill and athletic training facilities right in the locker room. Everything is extremely convenient for the hockey players, and that's something that was important to Mr. Pegula.

"And at the same time, he did say, I want this to be the rocking-est arena in college hockey, and there was provisions to build the student section with that in mind. I think a lot of really good thought was put into, prior to the building being built and Penn State being in a very fortunate situation, obviously, with the Pegula family and the space they had and how they support athletics here."

Penn State became one of the charter members of the Big Ten hockey conference in 2013-14, along with blue-blood programs Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State.

"[The media] wrote that we wouldn't win a conference game in the first three years," Gadowsky said. "I remember that it was written and that sort of stuck out to us."

Instead they won three conference games (3-16, one tie) in 2013-14, and the following season they won 10 (10-9, one tie).

Penn State had its first alum reach the NHL when forward Casey Bailey, an undrafted free agent who played three seasons at Penn State (2012-15), debuted with the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 26, 2015.

The first Penn State player to be selected at the NHL draft came when the Colorado Avalanche chose forward Denis Smirnov in the sixth round (No. 156) of the 2017 NHL Draft.

That same season, Penn State won its first Big Ten Tournament championship and reached the Midwest Regional Final at its first NCAA Tournament.

Then came last season, when Penn State advanced to the Frozen Four for the first time, capped by a 3-2 overtime win against the University of Connecticut in the regional finals.

A 3-1 loss to Boston University in the national semifinals has done little to slow the program's progress.

They picked up commitments for this season from two players starring for Canadian Hockey League teams. Forward Luke Misa, a Calgary Flames forward prospect, was third for Brampton of the Ontario Hockey League with 85 points (34 goals, 51 assists) in 67 games last season. And Jackson Smith, who was 10th among Western Hockey League defensemen with 54 points (11 goals, 43 assists) in 68 games for Tri-City. He then was selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets with the No. 14 pick of the 2025 NHL Draft.

Columbus Blue Jackets draft pick Jackson Smith (l.) and Calgary Flames draft pick Luke Misa moved from the CHL to play at Penn State this season.

This season Smith will be the first player selected in the first round of the NHL draft to play for Penn State.

"I think just having such a good team, but also me going in there, I've got quite a lot of expectations to go in there and play in a pretty big role," Smith said. "I think that's huge, being able to be a big component to such a good team. That's going to be pretty fun."

And forward Charlie Cerrato became the second Penn State player chosen in the draft when the Carolina Hurricanes selected him in the second round (No. 49) of the 2025 draft.

All the while, McKenna was watching and finalizing his decision, which came down to Michigan State and Penn State.

McKenna was second in the WHL last season with 129 points (41 goals, 88 assists) in 56 regular-season games with Medicine Hat, and he was third during the WHL playoffs with 38 points (nine goals, 29 assists) in 16 games. He helped the Tigers win the WHL championship and reach the title game of the Memorial Cup, and he was named player of the year in the WHL and the CHL.

Helped by an NCAA rule change in November that granted CHL players college hockey eligibility starting this season -- previously they had been considered professionals since some CHL players had signed NHL entry-level contracts -- McKenna saw Penn State as his best option for his NHL draft season.

"It was a super-tough decision," McKenna said July 8. "Obviously there's a lot of great options out there, but I think me, my family and everyone that was kind of part of my circle, we all decided the best spot for me next year will be Penn State University."

Instead of a program with decades of history, including Michigan State's three NCAA championships (1966, 1986, 2007) and a list of NHL alums that includes Rod Brind'Amour, Anson Carter and Ryan Miller, McKenna went a different direction.

Gavin McKenna is projected to be the No. 1 pick of the 2026 NHL Draft.

"I always want to pave my own path," he told NHL.com. "I don't want to be a follower. I want to do my own thing and go with my own heart. From the start, I had people telling me that Penn State was a new and upcoming school, and might not get you pro ready. But I want to stick with my gut and go with what I want to do, and kind of block out whatever everyone else says, and just go with my heart."

One of the things that won his heart at Penn State was the ping-pong table in the player lounge at Pegula Ice Arena. That table allowed him to create a bond with Gadowsky during his recruiting visit.

"I can tell he's a fun guy to be around," McKenna said. "He's a competitive guy. Loves to win. I played him in ping pong there, and he didn't take it easy on me when I went and toured there. It just shows he's a competitive guy and loves to win. I'm looking forward to it, and it should be a fun year."

McKenna said Gadowsky pulled out the win, in part because he hadn't picked up a paddle in a while.

Will he get a rematch?

"I will, for sure," McKenna said.

That will come, but hockey obviously will be the main topic for McKenna this season. That starts with a weekend set at Arizona State on Oct. 3-4.

His first games at Pegula Ice Arena will come the following weekend, Oct. 9-10 against Clarkson University.

And he'll also be in the spotlight when Penn State hosts Michigan State in the first men's hockey game played outdoors at 106,000-seat Beaver Stadium on Jan. 31.

"Gavin is a special player and a terrific young man," Gadowsky said. "Our staff could not have been more impressed with how he presented himself on his visit. His arrival to Hockey Valley is extremely significant not only to our hockey program, but to Penn State athletics and to college hockey as a whole. We are absolutely thrilled and excited to witness his contributions on the ice, to our locker room, and to the Penn State community."

There's no doubt McKenna's arrival raises the stakes at Penn State, which will have back its top four scorers from last season.

But the McKenna effect won't just be felt this season. He could become the focal point of future recruiting efforts. In addition to an energetic campus, a top-flight arena and player amenities, Penn State can sell the opportunity to play for the program that helped launch the next generational NHL player.

As eventful as the first 15 years of the Penn State program has been, what could be in store for the next 15?

"We find ourselves now in a spot where we've checked off everything on our checklist except for one," Gadowsky said. "So that's what we're shooting for."

Olczyk, who now works as a certified public accountant in Chicago, is as excited as anyone else about McKenna's arrival.

"Penn State kind of went from a new kid on the block to ... there's no denying that it might always be truly a football school deep down, just for all the football history there. But they're making a case that they're one of the most premier places to play hockey," he said, "from their facilities, from the coaching staff to all the amenities that the players have access to. It'll just be really exciting to watch them come fall."

NHL.com independent correspondent Craig Merz contributed to this report