Gavin McKenna is pretty good, folks.

The freshman phenom from Whitehorse, Yukon, is coming off the best series of his career and has been the best player in college hockey since returning from the IIHF World Junior Championships on January 9. He scored a program record eight points last Friday against Ohio State before following it up with a game-winning goal in overtime on Saturday to finish off a weekend sweep of the rival Buckeyes.

MCKENNA CALLED GAME!! #WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/f2xBY6KU1G

— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) February 22, 2026

On the season, McKenna is now up to 13 goals and 30 assists for 43 total points in 28 games this season, but his second-half barrage is even more eye-popping, registering nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points in 12 games. All of a sudden, the 18-year-old is tied for fifth in points in college hockey and second in points per game with 1.54. Both marks only trail star Quinnipiac forward Ethan Wyttenbach among freshmen.

But while McKenna remains a contender to go No. 1 in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft in June, his slow-ish start by his standards has prospect evaluators looking elsewhere, holding him to an extremely high standard by comparing him to current NHL superstars who played in a weaker NCAA. But now that McKenna is in firm contention for a Hobey Baker Award, where does he stack up to those NHL stars?

Macklin Celebrini, Boston University (2023-24)

Celebrini has been the standard that McKenna has been forced to live up to ever since he committed to Penn State last summer. The similarities are endless. Both are from Canada and debuted in college at age 17 before being eligible for the draft. The bar that Celebrini set, however, is monstrous.

At Boston University, he was a star right out of the gate, registering three multi-goal games before the end of October. His consistency was unmatched, with only one game in which he went two games without a point. He didn’t have the single-game takeover that McKenna had last week (his season-high in points was four), but registered a point in 32 of his 38 games en route to a 32-goal, 64-point season.

He not only became the youngest ever winner of the Hobey Baker Award and went on to be the first college forward to go No. 1 overall in 38 years, but he followed it up by narrowly missing out on the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie and was on the top line of Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics at just 19. He’s a superstar.

Through 28 games in his lone collegiate season, he had… 43 points, the exact same total as McKenna. Funny how that works, huh? Celebrini was on a roster with gobs of NHL draft picks, including a 2023 and 2024 first-rounder, as well as current Montreal Canadiens star defenseman Lane Hutson, who beat Celebrini out for the 2025 Calder Trophy. The Terriers went 28-10-2 and made it to the Frozen Four before losing to Denver.

Adam Fantilli, Michigan (2022-23)

Fantilli, like Celebrini and McKenna, was also born in Canada, but he shares more in common with Celebrini, as both played stateside in the USHL rather than in the sub-leagues of the Canadian Hockey League.

Fantilli is the oldest of the three, but not by much, turning 18 a week after making his collegiate debut. Like Celebrini, he came out of the gate on fire, registering multiple points in eight of his first 11 games (his only scoreless game? Against Penn State). He even potted a hat trick against Lake Superior State in October.

He was a model of consistency, and like McKenna, turned his game into hyperdrive when the calendar flipped to the new year. He had a six-game multi-point streak in January 2023, scoring five goals with 10 assists, all against Big Ten competition. His production slowed a bit when February hit, but the Ontario native finished the season with 30 goals and 35 points in 36 games, winning the Hobey Baker Award.

His production through 28 games dwarfed both Celebrini and McKenna, scoring a blistering 53 points. Michigan, like Celebrini’s Boston University squad, made the Frozen Four, notably knocking off the Nittany Lions in overtime in the Regional Final, but lost to Quinnipiac in the National Semifinal. That team was absolutely loaded, winding up with five first-round picks on the roster.

Despite his phenomenal season, Fantilli fell to No. 3 in a draft that featured one of the best prospects of the last decade, Connor Bedard (a disappointing World Juniors performance didn’t help Fantilli). He faced an issue that McKenna may face: being in a loaded draft class. While there is no Bedard in this draft, there are several candidates who will push McKenna for the No. 1 spot, including Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg.

Matty Beniers, Michigan (2020-21)

Not every top prospect goes out there and wins the Hobey Baker. Matty Beniers, selected No. 2 overall in 2021 by the Seattle Kraken, is evidence of what it looks like when a star prospect plays well, but not at a generational level.

Beniers enrolled at Michigan during the COVID-19 pandemic and played his first collegiate game in front of just 80 people, just after his 18th birthday. He started with a bang, scoring two goals against Arizona State that night (sound familiar?), but suffered more dry spells than Fantilli or Celebrini endured. In the shortened season, he scored a hat trick in February 2021 and had a four-point game on the road against Minnesota late in the regular season.

He ended up with just 10 goals and 24 points in 24 games, a decent total, but one that wasn’t expected. He got hot towards the end of the year, like McKenna and Celebrini, but ran off the runway when Michigan’s season ended early due to a COVID-19 outbreak, being forcibly removed from the NCAA Tournament because of it.

Beniers would go No. 2 overall, but felt he needed more seasoning, returning to the Wolverines, unlike every player on this list. After a strong sophomore season, he won the Calder Trophy in 2023 and has become a regular on the Kraken, recently signing a big-money extension. Progress is not always linear for these prospects, but Beniers is certainly not complaining about how things have gone for him.

Brady Tkachuk, Boston University (2017-18)

The last two players in this comparison recently won Olympic gold medals over Celebrini’s Team Canada. Maybe in 2030, McKenna can team up with Celebrini to get some revenge.

The younger Tkachuk brother was a newly minted 18-year-old when he debuted for Boston University. His performance wasn’t eye-popping, registering just 31 points in 40 games, but that didn’t impact much of his stock. With future Team USA teammate Jake Oettinger in net and future NHL head coach David Quinn behind the bench, the Terriers won the Hockey East tournament, but flamed out in the Regional Final.

He would go No. 4 overall to the Ottawa Senators in the 2018 draft as the only college forward to be selected in the first round. While several players go to college after being picked (see Jackson Smith), it’s important to consider just how rare it is for a top prospect to play in the NCAA before becoming draft-eligible. Getting star production from that is extremely rare.

Jack Eichel, Boston University (2014-15)

Another Olympic gold medalist, Eichel is the golden goose of draft-eligible collegiate forwards.

You want a generational prospect? Eichel was getting McKenna-level hype as the “future of American hockey” when he enrolled at B.U. in 2014 at the age of 17. All the pressure in the world was on him, just as it is on McKenna.

He came out guns blazing, with two goals and two assists in his collegiate debut. He never went on an absolute tear when it came to goal scoring as Celebrini did, but he was a world-class playmaker on a stacked Terriers team. He had a 13-game point streak that bled into the NCAA Tournament and ended the season with a phenomenal 26 goals, 45 assists, and 71 points in 40 games, en route to a Hobey Baker Award.

What did he have through 28 games? 48 total points, five ahead of McKenna and Celebrini, but five behind Fantilli. His best hockey came late in the year, registering four multi-goal games in the postseason, including one in the National Semifinal. He was selected No. 2 overall in 2015, only because there happened to be a guy named Connor McDavid tearing up the Ontario Hockey League.

So what does this mean for McKenna? He’s right where he needs to be. He’s playing his best hockey in Big Ten play, and even though he had a quiet weekend against Michigan earlier in February, he showed he can pile up points against quality opponents, as he did with strong weekends against Wisconsin and Michigan State earlier.

Enjoy him while you can, folks.