Scout’s Analysis: Notes on Gavin McKenna’s begin within the NCAA

With the NCAA hockey season’s first two weeks now within the books gamers are settling into their roles and groups are making changes forward of their week three opponents.

Penn State Nittany Lions college students and followers had a chance to view prime rated NHL prospect Gavin McKenna at dwelling versus the Clarkson Golden Knights this previous weekend at their much-anticipated dwelling opener. They ended up splitting their sequence, dropping sport one by a rating of 6-4 earlier than rebounding for a 5-2 victory within the second sport.  

All eyes are on McKenna, the highest rated NHL prospect for the 2026 draft, and he’s adjusting to how the faculty sport is performed. The NCAA sport is flush with a lot older, stronger athletes who’re higher geared up to make life bodily, and at occasions mentally, tougher on star forwards like McKenna. It’s going to take a while for Penn State to gel as a staff and, extra particularly, McKenna to regulate to the 200-foot effort required to win on the faculty stage.

Here are my observations from McKenna’s first 4 video games suiting up for Penn State this season:

How McKenna is being deployed

Through the primary 4 video games of the season, Nittany Lions head coach Guy Gadowsky has deployed McKenna in quite a lot of roles. He’s touching the ice in all conditions and is averaging over 22 minutes of ice time per sport. Incredibly, McKenna has seen his ice time on the ability play alone vary from 5 minutes to over eight minutes within the second sport of the Clarkson sequence. His function on the penalty kill has seen him deployed for simply over a minute per sport.

McKenna is finest described as a “free-wheeling winger.” He’s a movement participant who, regardless of zone exits that usually start from the half wall, makes use of your complete width of the ice to make performs and is exceptionally harmful when he explodes out of the defensive zone and assaults with velocity via the impartial zone.

Here’s an instance of McKenna pouncing on a puck within the impartial zone and out-skating opponents up ice to generate a high-danger scoring alternative:

Last 12 months I observed how McKenna struggled at occasions taking face-offs and it was particularly noticeable within the defensive zone. Suffice to say he doesn’t look snug within the function and it’s clearly one thing Gadowsky is conscious of as nicely. McKenna has solely been tasked with taking one face-off via 4 video games for Penn State.

Since Mckenna has solely taken one draw this 12 months I dove into my archives from final season when he was enjoying for the Medicine Hat Tigers within the WHL. The sequence under speaks for itself when it comes to face-off strategy and figuring out obligations if the draw is misplaced:

When NHL golf equipment are debating whether or not or not McKenna will be capable to play centre in time they are going to little question monitor if he’s being utilized in that function at Penn State, and see what his success fee appears like within the face-off dot alongside together with his on- and off-the-puck element defensively. At this level it’s fairly clear McKenna is a winger and never prone to have the opportunity play centre transferring ahead.

Attracting the defence’s consideration

McKenna is blessed with elite offensive hockey sense, puck contact, and imaginative and prescient. He thinks the sport one play forward and executes accordingly together with his playmaking. He’s the type of prospect who attracts the opponent’s consideration when he has the puck on his stick, however he has the flexibility to take advantage of holes of their protection when greater than a type of opponents makes an attempt to entrance him to kill a play of their zone.

Here are some examples of what I’m speaking about from his first few NCAA video games:

In the primary clip McKenna appears to be contained alongside the half wall in Arizona State’s zone, however his small space agility and puck administration results in a internet entrance alternative for his group:

The second clip comes from the sport Friday night time versus Clarkson. Notice how McKenna rotates on the prime of the zone and, within the course of, baits two Clarkson defenders into panicking on a call. Instead of remaining in place with poise they find yourself getting twisted up whereas making an attempt to entrance McKenna, which results in a simple again door feed and an influence play purpose for Penn State:

I spoke with my former teammate and long-time colleague Chris Brooks after Clarkson’s win. Brooks is the affiliate head coach at Clarkson and is tasked with pre-scouting their opponents. He talked about to me how Clarkson ready their group for the “free-wheeling” strategy the Nittany Lions current and the way they urged their staff to chip pucks deep into Penn State’s zone, outwork them within the trenches, and problem them to verify the complete 200 ft of the ice floor.

When it got here to McKenna particularly, Brooks emphasised to his staff how McKenna “lurks” and “builds momentum off his impact on the power play, which in turn transitions confidence into his 5-on-5 game overall”.

He went on to state it’s crucial for defenders to maintain a participant like McKenna “outside the dots in the offensive zone, protect the middle of the ice, and not chase him around the perimeter when he has the puck on his stick because he’s far too slippery and dangerous when sliding off checks. He’s deceptive and has the ability to change direction on a dime, which makes him very difficult to contain. We tried to limit his quick strike offence in transition and in our zone by keeping him to the outside and be patient enough to allow him to have time and space from the perimeter because he won’t hurt us as much from the outside.”

Here’s a clip of what Brooks is describing from the second sport within the sequence. This sequence results in a poor shot choice from McKenna (No. 72) and a puck that exits the offensive zone when he misses the online on the far facet.

My dialog with Brooks then switched again to the technique of getting pucks deep behind Penn State defenders and profitable the small space battles within the defensive zone.

“Penn State have an exceptional amount of skill and McKenna leads the way,” he said. “We wanted to challenge their group to win pucks along the boards and wear them down when possible. McKenna, for all of his skill, is still learning that he has to exit the offensive zone on time and activate off the puck in all three zones more consistently at the college level.”

I worth Brooks’ suggestions and, whereas scouting McKenna in these video games, observed how he has important room to enhance defensively.

In this clip, McKenna has surpassed his “fatigue threshold” and will have gone off on a line change. Instead, he’s late together with his offensive zone exit and stops skating on the centre ice stripe on the again verify:

Gavin McKenna is supremely proficient. He’s a dynamic offensive machine who posted 41G-88A in 56 common season video games final 12 months with Medicine Hat and adopted it up with 9G-29A in 16 playoff video games. He completed the season a plus-74 total, which tells me he wasn’t slicing corners on the main junior stage.

The NCAA sport, nevertheless, is completely different than the WHL. McKenna gained’t be dealing with as many 17- or 18-year-olds within the NCAA. College hockey is flush with males of their early-20s and never a lot teenagers who’re nonetheless rising into their our bodies. McKenna has posted 1G-4A in his first 4 video games, so his offensive component has been on full show, however he’s additionally a minus-4 to this point.

As a lot as I’m enthusiastic about McKenna’s trajectory as a possible prime flight scoring machine when he arrives within the NHL, I’m additionally monitoring his total sport to ensure I’m snug together with his defensive effort. The NHL is the highest league on the planet and it is tough to supply offence there each night time. McKenna will rating, however he has room for development in different areas of his sport and, the excellent news is, he has time on his facet to determine it out as he develops this 12 months within the NCAA.