It’s that time of year.

On Monday, Penn State men’s hockey head coach Guy Gadowsky and several players on the 2025-26 squad took the podium to discuss the upcoming season on the team’s annual Media Day ahead of its season opener on Friday, October 3, against Arizona State.

Here’s what we learned about the Nittany Lions ahead of the most anticipated season in program history.

On Gavin McKenna

The first question of the day would set the tone for the entire media availability, as freshman phenom Gavin McKenna frequently popped up in discussion throughout the day. From Gadowsky to Aiden Fink, everyone had something to say about him.

“His work ethic is excellent. He fits into our locker room extremely well,” said Gadowsky, glowing about the biggest recruit in program history. “He’s extremely quick, he’s extremely fast, he’s also in great shape.”

Gadowsky continued to laud McKenna’s tremendous speed and conditioning throughout the press conference.

“It’s not that he’s picked up the pace, he manipulates the pace,” Gadowsky said. “I’m certainly not going to try to understand his mind, because I’ve never seen anything like that. I can’t explain what he does with the puck, I can only observe it.”

His teammates similarly praised him. Fink was asked about McKenna and how the two star forwards have connected in their brief time together.

“Me and Gav, we pick each other’s brains every day about the power play. Today, we were talking about, you know, what we can do,” Fink said. “We’re always talking to each other, seeing what looks we have, what we can do better than that stuff.”

The nonstop praise didn’t stop at what he does on the ice. From Gadowsky to Fink to newly-minted captain Dane Dowiak, it seems as if McKenna has made a tremendous first impression.

“He’s an unbelievable kid,” said Dowiak. “He’s an unbelievable player, but the person he is says a lot about how he was raised and where he comes from. You know, with all the hype he has, he’s just a normal guy.”

On Keaton Peters’ and Cade Christenson’s Injuries

In the lead-up to the season, sophomore forward Keaton Peters announced over the weekend that he would miss the 2025-26 season with a knee injury, but an existing injury to sophomore defenseman Cade Christenson was clarified with a potential timetable.

“He’s doing well, considering the injury,” said Gadowsky. “But it’s a long-term injury. If he does come back, it will not be until after Christmas.”

Christenson was a big part of the team’s run to the Frozen Four last year, becoming a unanimous selection to the Big Ten’s All-Freshman Team while playing 39 games and scoring nine points with a very impressive plus/minus of +23. He led the Big Ten with 79 blocked shots and, after losing several senior starters last year, they’ll need all hands on deck while the Edmonton, Canada, native recovers.

Gadowsky named Nic Chin-DeGraves and incoming freshman Lev Katzin as two forwards who can fill Peters’ role as a gritty, bottom-six forward who blocked shots and won faceoffs for the Nittany Lions last season.

On The Goaltending Situation

Last year, Penn State made one of the best transfer portal acquisitions in all of college hockey by landing former UConn goaltender Arsenii Sergeev. In his one year on campus so far, Sergeev went 19-9-4 with a .919 save percentage and 2.54 goals against average. He tied the all-time program record for shutouts in a season with four and put up multiple 40-save performances to bring the Nittany Lions to the NCAA Tournament and the Frozen Four.

After Sergeev signed an entry-level contract with the Calgary Flames, Penn State brought in a pair of goaltenders to try and replace him. Omaha transfer Kevin Reidler and former CHL goaltender Josh Fleming have arrived in Happy Valley to compete for the right to succeed Sergeev as the team’s starting goalie.

At least through Monday, Gadowsky has not made a decision on who will get the job.

“No, I don’t think so,” Gadowsky said. “I think Kevin [Reidler] is coming in with the expectation, as he is the one goalie that we brought in that does have collegiate experience.”

While Gadowsky has compared Reidler to Sergeev in net, he has also been extremely impressed with Fleming, saying he is impressed with his character and drive on the ice.

Gadowsky does anticipate that Reidler will start against Arizona State due to his experience, but made it clear that the starting job is far from settled beyond that.

On The Freshmen Adjusting To College Hockey

If anything holds back the Nittany Lions, at least initially, it’ll be the potential adjustment period for the incoming freshmen. The newly opened CHL-to-NCAA pipeline has led to an influx of young talent coming from various Canadian hockey leagues into the more physical world of college hockey.

When asked about how he’s preparing the newcomers ahead of the season opener on Friday, Gadowsky said that the intensity with which the team practices is a big part of it.

“I did ask them about that, and someone said, ‘Yeah, it’s faster, they’re bigger, stronger,’ so I think it’s a matter of competing… it’s a matter of making sure that when we do have competitive drills and compete drills, that guys go extremely hard and they do,” Gadowsky said. “That’s part of being here. Penn State hockey. You’re not going to survive if you don’t.”

In regard to McKenna, he did point out the phenom’s youth and how he’ll be playing guys much older than he is.

“He’s going to be playing guys that are eight years older,” Gadowsky said. “There is going to be a transition process, really, there is. He’s 17.”

On The New Captains

Ahead of Media Day, the program announced a new leadership group, with Dowiak serving as the captain and senior defenseman Jarod Crespo as the alternate captain. Gadowsky had great things to say about both veteran leaders:

“He loves Penn State and embodies it… He does a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score, but the guys recognize as being essential for us to have success,” Gadowsky said of Dowiak.

“He’s a natural. Jarod’s [Crespo] the type of guy that, whether he likes it or not, he’s a leader…He was committed to Penn State at a very young age, and he bleeds blue and white through and through,” Gadowsky said of Crespo.

Dowiak was very grateful for the honor of following in Simon Mack’s footsteps as the eleventh captain of the Nittany Lions since they became a Division I program.

“Honestly, just really honored,” said Dowiak. “I look at all the past captains that have been here and the leadership groups that I’ve been lucky to be around and I’m excited… Those guys taught me so much, so I felt like I was pretty prepared.”

Dowiak said that he looks up to the two captains he’s had as an underclassman, Christian Berger and Simon Mack, and looks to embody their leadership styles.

“Those guys were obviously tremendous people, tremendous hockey players, but they were really good leaders. They did everything the right way, on and off the ice and in the classroom,” Dowiak said.

Crespo, who has the most games played with the Nittany Lions of any player on the roster, also does not take his leadership role for granted.

“I’m super honored that guys want me in that position. Our goal is to win a national championship, a Big Ten championship, and obviously do everything I can as a leader to keep our sights focused on that.”

On The Excitement Of Playing In Beaver Stadium

The excitement about the January 31 game at Beaver Stadium against rival Michigan State is all over the Penn State community and the locker room as well. From Gadowsky to the players, everyone is pumped for it.

“We’re extremely excited,” said Gadowsky. “It’s one of the most common questions that I’ve received since day one of getting here… ‘When are you guys going to play in Beaver Stadium?’ For it to finally happen is awesome.”

“I’ve been hoping for this for my whole time here,” said Crespo. “It’s going to be an absolutely electric environment.”

“It would be the coolest game I ever play in my life,” said Dowiak. “We have the best hockey fans in the country with the Roar Zone. I know they’re going to bring the energy, and I mean, you add tens of thousands more and I don’t think it’ll get any better.”

“I’m super excited,” said Fink. “We played at Wrigley last year, that was a cool experience, got to feel what it’s like to play outdoors, but I think it’s gonna be ten times better… It’s a dream of mine.”

On The Heightened Expectations

Of course, the expectations are through the roof. When you combine coming off of the first Frozen Four appearance in program history with the best recruiting class in program history, consisting of multiple first-round level talents, you expect to contend for a national championship.

When asked about turning the page to this season, Gadowsky stressed picking up where the team left off last season.

“It’s not a new page, it’s continuing where we left off… I think that the team is very proud of what they went through, and what they did was pretty spectacular, and they want to continue it,” Gadowsky said. “It’s why a lot of people come to Penn State. I don’t think if you’re an athlete, you come to Penn State if that’s not what you want. So, I guess you look at it as, you’d much rather be in a position where you have expectations than when you don’t”

“I think we’re just taking it day by day,” said Dowiak. “Obviously, we know what we did last year was pretty special. We’re going to have a target on our back every night and we’re going to get every team’s best game.”

“There’s obviously a lot of pressure, but I think over the years, I’ve learned to deal with it,” said McKenna. “Especially with our team this year, there’s a lot of hype and obviously with that some pressure…I’ve been on teams where there’s a lot of hype around us and we’ve been able to pull through.”

Penn State opens its regular season ranked No. 5 in the nation. It will head on the road to face Arizona State at Mullett Arena in Tempe on Friday, October 3 at 9 p.m. The game will be broadcast on NCHC.TV.