Beatlemania was already underway when The Beatles first official U.S. tour opened at the Cow Palace near San Francisco on Aug. 19, 1963.
Michael Jordan was already a Parade All-American when he started his first college basketball game for the No. 1-ranked North Carolina men’s basketball team on Nov. 28, 1981.
And Gavin McKenna was already a world champion and presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft when he arrived at Penn State for preseason camp and fall semester classes.
McKenna makes his college hockey debut Friday in Tempe, Arizona, as fifth-ranked Penn State begins a two-game series against No. 14 Arizona State. Broadcasts of both games have been moved from behind a paywall on NCHC.tv to the NHL Network.
McKenna, who played the past three seasons for the Medicine Hat Tigers in the Western Hockey League, enters this season as the highest-profile member of a group of players trying college hockey for the first time. Starting this season, players do not need to decide to go to the Canadian Hockey League as one route to professional hockey or maintain their college eligibility by focusing on the Canadian Junior A level or the United States Hockey League before college as a separate route.
Many people expect the influx of talent to raise the level of play in college hockey — and with McKenna as the most prominent of those additions (along with teammate Jackson Smith, who was a first-round pick earlier this year) there’s a lot of attention on Penn State.
Seriously, a lot of attention.
Media requests for the team’s home games at Pegula Ice Arena have Penn State Athletics trying to figure out how to accommodate those who want to cover the team, and how to parse and protect McKenna’s time. In addition, McKenna has his own people, including a camera crew that accompanied him on his recruiting visit earlier this year and was at Penn State’s local media day earlier this week.
Attention for McKenna and the team will be similarly high on the road.
The get-in price on Ticketmaster for Friday’s game was $95.33 for a standing-room ticket. If you can wait until after Opening Night and catch the show when the puck drops Saturday, the number goes down to $76.89. Prefer not to slum and want a seat on the glass? That’ll be more than $275 Saturday, although that includes a food and beverage package.
A 12-minute feature on McKenna and his Indigenous heritage — he’s a member of the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin First Nation — debuted on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s CBC Sports this week.
McKenna has been the young face of Canadian hockey for years. So, attention might not be new for him, but the level of attention will be hard to miss. Even in the most comfortable place for many players in any sport, the arena, more people will be watching.
The Medicine Hat Tigers averaged a little more than 3,500 fans per game last season. Meanwhile, Penn State attracted an average 6,180 fans to Pegula Ice Arena. That ranked eighth nationally and represented 106.9% of the building’s reported capacity.
And while there are decades of anticipation, history and a foundational support for Penn State playing a hockey game at Beaver Stadium, it’s no surprise that it’s finally set to happen this season with a Jan. 31, 2026, matchup against No. 3 Michigan State.
Tickets for that go on sale to the public Oct. 15, and the seat map has the ice situated at midfield — making all #107k seats available for purchase.
Tickets to Penn State’s other 18 regular season games are sold out but the resale market has many options, and the get-in price for the home opener against Clarkson on Oct. 9 is much more reasonable than that for McKenna’s desert debut. Things do get pricey once Big Ten Conference play begins, though.
It’s not all because of McKenna, but it’s a fair guess that not all of that happens without the 17-year-old showing up at Penn State. That’s a lot on the shoulders of a 6-foot, 170-pound forward who grew up in Whitehorse, Yukon, admits he has a long way to go in keeping his own apartment clean, enjoys riding a side-by-side and does not turn 18 until Dec. 20.
By then, if all things go well, McKenna will be 16 games into his college career. No matter what, he’ll play fewer games this season than he has in the past because the NCAA schedule is not as tightly packed as that of the CHL. He welcomes that as an opportunity to enhance his strength and conditioning as well as better prepare for an eventual NHL career.
If it works out, he’ll have benefited from the best of both worlds: preparation in the CHL and experience at the NCAA level. That means more challenging and mature competition this season — as well as the monetary benefits of name, image and likeness payments to players.
Only five college hockey players have been No. 1 overall picks in the NHL Draft – Macklin Celebrini (2024), Owen Power (2021), Erik Johnson (2006), Rick DiPietro (2000) and Joe Murphy (1986).
It’s 3,400 miles from McKenna’s Yukon hometown to his current stopover Hockey Valley. As he works toward his next stop — wherever the 2026 NHL Draft will be conducted (it’s still undecided but you get the sense that McKenna’s presence might matter with which venue gets selection) — there will be a lot more attention along the way.
And, sure, he may not be the Beatles or Jordan. It’s not likely he’ll be arrogant or attention-seeking, either. No matter what, it’ll be an interesting season with moments of success, failure and probably a little bit of mania.
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