There are real expectations for Penn State men’s hockey this season.
Not that there weren’t before. Not that there never were – even when they were a niche, albeit mighty, club team.
It’s just now – things are very different. Things have changed.
From the time the calendar flipped to 2025 to now, the Penn State men’s hockey program has done a lot of things to make that change.
A comprehensive list of things that have happened since January include but are not limited to: Penn State climbing out of the basement to in the Big Ten, beating Michigan in a best-of-3 series at Yost, making the NCAA Tournament, advancing to the program’s Frozen Four thanks to an overtime goal from Matt DiMarsico, losing in the Frozen Four to Boston University, getting a commitment from Jackson Smith, then being in the hunt for Porter Martone, only to sign likely first overall 2026 NHL Draft pick Gavin McKenna to a groundbreaking commitment for the sport that came on Sportscenter, making Canadian Hockey League fans angry because CHL players can now come to the NCAA and they don’t like that for some reason, Smith getting drafted in the first round of the NHL Draft, downtown merch stores selling McKenna’s jersey, and announcing a game against Martone and Michigan State that will be played in front of potentially 100,000-or-so people inside Beaver Stadium.
Things are not what they used to be. Things have changed in a way that’s hard for anyone to ignore.
For the first time in modern program history, Penn State will tackle a new era that’s not about a rink or the novelty of just having a Division I team.
Now, it’s about the outcomes and that might be the biggest change of them all.
Penn State’s 2025-26 season doesn’t happen in the way it’s already happened without what happened in 2024-25.
It simply doesn’t. There’s a mind-bending alternate timeline out there of what happens if Penn State doesn’t beat UConn to advance to the Frozen Four in the same way there’s an alternate timeline where John Reid catches that ball in 2016 against Ohio State.
But what’s unique is how quickly all of this has happened. Back when Penn State announced it had received a $100 million-plus donation from alumnus Terry Pegula, it was years before the ice rink bearing his name opened its doors. There was an air of anticipation. Even in its first season as a Division I program, there was a dash of discredibility, which is not fair to that team, that this all didn’t really start until the moment Pegula Ice Arena became the home for Hockey Valley.
Most Penn Staters, at least the ones who are passionate about football, don’t remember the first Division I men’s hockey game was against AIC, not Army a year later. With all due respect to that first team, it’s valid to say that for most of those Penn Staters, hockey began in 2013.
(Ironically, now this moment and that moment came during a government shutdown.)
But for those though that remember watching the Joe Battista’s Icers take on teams like Ohio and fellow ACHA-to-NCAA team Arizona State under the yellow lights, moments like the one we — fan, coach, player or quasi-media member — are all collectively about to witness when the puck drops against the Sun Devils tonight would have only ever felt like a desert mirage.
Everything about Penn State hockey had been – up until the start of 2025 – the future in a painstakingly prolonged way. But in 2025, the change and the results of that change happened in the present.
Now, with a core featuring McKenna and also players like Aiden Fink – arguably the program’s best player to date until he steps on the ice with McKenna – or Charlie Cerrato – arguably the program’s biggest commitment ever until he steps on the ice with McKenna and Smith – Penn State has real aspirations of a national championship.
Now, for Guy Gadowsky, the program’s only Division I head coach, and his team, it’s about the now.
Penn State doesn’t get to the now without last season. It was all of those moments that started all the way back in January that got Penn State to this point now, but of course, it was also all of those moments before that which got Penn State to that point.
Everything has been about this program moving forward – even when at moments like last year – it felt like it almost couldn’t.
That is what all of this was actually about: Pushing the sport of hockey, not just Penn State hockey, to a new level in the Keystone State. Raising the profile of the opportunity this team could have on the sport in the state for a ravenous fan base that’s passionate for those wearing blue and white.
Because there are real expectations on this team, all of that will be under a much more magnified microscope too.
People will tune in – and not just Penn State fans. There will be increased attention on this team in a way that no other college hockey team has ever faced. There will be increased attention on an individual player in a way that no other college hockey player has ever faced.
Most of all, there will be increased focus on Penn State by Penn Staters to win in a way that no other Penn State hockey team has faced before.
Things have changed for the former club team from Happy Valley.
Things sure have changed.
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