Buckle those seatbelts, Michigan State hockey fans, we are facing one of the most important recruiting decisions in program history (maybe even across all sports) as projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft Gavin McKenna is reportedly down to his final two schools.
Recently a top schools was rumored to be Penn State, Michigan State, Michigan, and Minnesota, but now it looks like the budding superstar could be down to two teams.
According to reports from this past week from multiple sources, McKenna is down to his final two schools for one year of college hockey: Michigan State and Penn State.
Another situation to monitor is the Gavin McKenna news.
— Giustino_Racchini (@GRacchini) June 28, 2025
His final two has been reported as Michigan State and Penn State.
Now it’s time to wait and see when he will decide on his hockey future for next year. pic.twitter.com/legI9oXQWI
This is a bit of a surprising twist seeing as Adam Nightingale is already getting back two of the best players in college hockey in Isaac Howard and Trey Augustine after winning back-to-back Big Ten titles and entering the 2025 NCAA Hockey Tournament as arguably the favorite and best overall team. Adding a superstar like McKenna will only add more pressure onto the 2025-26 team.
And that's just fine with Nightingale and the Spartans.
Sure, the 2024-25 season ended with a thud and an early exit in the Spartans' first game against Cornell. It started as a potential Michigan State blowout before Cornell rallied in the third period to pour it on the Spartans and shock the college hockey world.
Now, Nightingale is going all in on some top prospects and it's already paid off as he's assembled what many are calling the best team in college hockey.
Add McKenna to the mix and it will get really interesting.
The No. 1 overall NHL Draft prospect is considered the next great star who will join the league and have an instant impact, but he's going to play a year of college hockey and it'll reportedly be in the Big Ten.
It's time for Nightingale to seal the deal and return the crown to East Lansing.