What Gavin McKenna's decision means for college hockey

Gavin McKenna made his choice. And now it's a whole new ballgame.

The presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL draft announced on ESPN's flagship program that he would play his draft year at Penn State University, eschewing the Canadian Hockey League and, potentially, redrawing the sport's development pyramid for good.

Last November, it was announced that NCAA hockey would allow former CHL players to have college eligibility for the first time in decades, beginning in the 2025-26 season, reversing a long-held and controversial policy that major junior hockey was in effect professional hockey. But even with the policy change, there was some question about what that actually meant for the CHL, the NCAA, the USHL, and more.

For one thing, the CHL's position was that this would be a good option for