Early Scouting Report on Projected 2026 No. 1 NHL Draft Pick Gavin McKenna

There’s been a lot of chatter about Gavin McKenna this week, and we’re right on time for the “just asking questions” brigade to start pondering whether or not he actually deserves the first overall status that largely the same crowd blessed him with two years ago.Â

This is why I don’t like crowning top prospects that far out. (See: Lafreniere, Alexis.) But McKenna has played two full WHL seasons, plus the 16 games he played before he was eligible to join the WHL full-time (he had 18 points in those). So we’ve got a pretty good idea of who he is as a player. Let’s jump in and look at whatever the lucky lottery-winning team is getting in McKenna, as of right now—November 2025.

Team:Penn State Nittany Lions (NCAA)

Points:14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) in 12 gamesÂ

Some quick notes on McKenna: as noted above, he’s been touted as the consensus number one for a while. Some people are beginning to get bored of that and look elsewhere, and some of them even have valid reasons that we’ll get into in a couple slides.

McKenna made the decision to jump from the WHL, a major-junior hockey league that plays 68 games per season, to the NCAA, a college hockey league that plays 40 games per season. NCAA games are more spaced out, where major-junior schedules more closely resemble a professional league (understandable, as NCAA players are student-athletes and—allegedly—take classes during the week). He’s playing against not just older players in the NCAA but bigger, more experienced players. He’s adjusting not only to a new environment and new teammates but to a completely new style of play and approach to the season.Â

At the time of writing, he’s recorded 14 points in 12 games, including 4 goals and 10 assists. That’s good for 14th place in college hockey, and fourth on his own team. Not really what you’d expect, but as I noted above—it’s a completely different league. He has recorded 48 shots on goal, good for second on the team, something that probably isn’t surprising to anyone who has seen him play.

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