Plenty of questions for Penn State hockey in its first season after Gavin McKenna

A year ago, the media room in Pegula Ice Arena was packed for local media day. There was no room to stand, let alone sit, and more cameras than ever before.

At Tuesday’s preseason media day, the Penn State men’s hockey media room had returned to its normal state.

That’s what happens when No. 1 overall pick Gavin McKenna leaves for the NHL.

“Even last year, I mean, you think about it, there’s so much media around you, and you know everybody’s just watching there for one guy,” said sophomore defenseman Jackson Smith, who was selected 14th overall in 2025 by the Columbus Blue Jackets. “So it sucks to see Gav go. He’s one of my best friends, so sucks to see him go.”

McKenna signed his entry-level contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs this summer after one year at Penn State where he tallied 51 points, 15 goals, and 36 assists, becoming the first player in program history to lead the Big Ten in scoring.

He was the third Nittany Lion to be taken No. 1 overall in any professional draft, joining Ki-Jana Carter and Courtney Brown, who did so in the NFL.

“Extremely grateful for the opportunity to get to coach him, and of course we would have loved multiple years, but the opportunity to have him for one was just fantastic,” coach Guy Gadowsky said. “I think the whole program learned a lot about having a player of that stature in our team, and not just the coaching staff, but the entire staff. So I think we’re all better off for it.”

The Nittany Lions now have to find a way to replicate McKenna’s production if they want to return to the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season. They also lost their top two goal-scorers from 2025-26, as Matt DiMarsico signed with the Colorado Avalanche and J.J. Wiebusch transferred to Wisconsin.

Combined with the fact there’s only seven upperclassmen compared to eight freshmen, it’s unclear how Penn State is going to mesh on the ice this season.

“Obviously, every season has ups and downs,” Gadowsky said. “It’s how you respond to it. … What’s going to be the key to getting everybody meshing? And you never know. I got to tell you, we haven’t lost yet, so ... everybody feels pretty good.”

With the top production gone, Gadowsky said he expects his offense to be “more by committee,” rather than it being concentrated on a few top players, such as McKenna. They’re mixing and matching forward lines to see which trios have more success.

The defensive pairings also aren’t set. Smith, who broke the Penn State record for goals by a defenseman in a single season last year with 11, said “we’ll see on Friday” when asked who he’ll be sharing the ice with for the season opener at Connecticut.

“We’ve seen a number of lines that have been productive with different pieces of the puzzle, so we haven’t necessarily settled on it,” Gadowsky said. “The only thing we’ve settled on is that we will probably try many.”

Also different from last year are the expectations. Penn State was one of the favorites to win the national championship in 2025-26 — beginning the season ranked No. 5 in the USCHO poll — but now is No. 17 to open the season and last in the Big Ten preseason coaches’ poll.

Senior defenseman Mac Gadowsky doesn’t necessarily mind that. He felt the Nittany Lions were “in our heads a little bit” last season with the outside “noise,” but learned from that experience.

“We have to kind of stay away from listening to the noise and kind of look to ourselves to build our confidence and build it from the ground up,” said Mac, who will play another season under his father, Guy.

They say the main goal for this season without a star forward and unprecedented expectations is to simply start playing Penn State hockey again. To Gadowsky, that’s a physical, pucks-on-net mentality, and it’s something the players feel they got away from a bit last season.

“Just being a harder team to play against than last year,” Smith said. “Years before, (Gadowsky) always says that Penn State hockey was really hard to play against. I think last year we could have kind of got away from that a little bit, so that’s something that we’re going to try to bring back.”