A History Of Penn State In The NHL
Thursday could’ve been a historic day in the history of Penn State men’s hockey, but while it was somewhat muted by unfortunate happenings, something special did happen that night in Calgary.
Former Penn State goaltender Arsenii Sergeev was recalled from the Calgary Wranglers of the American Hockey League (AHL) on an emergency basis to the big leagues for the final game of the 2025-26 season for the Calgary Flames after backup goalie Devon Cooley was ruled out with an illness.
While regular starter Dustin Wolf was healthy, the Flames used this opportunity to give their former seventh-round pick a chance to make his NHL debut in the final game of one of their worst seasons ever. While this game mattered to the opposing Los Angeles Kings and also Calgary themselves due to draft lottery odds, Sergeev worked against both of their interests.
The Russian netminder was fantastic in net, stopping 27 of 28 shots and registering a superb 2.62 goals saved above expected (GSAx), according to MoneyPuck, en route to a 3-1 win, not only becoming the first Nittany Lion to start at goalie in the NHL, but also registering a win.
It’s also notable that he is just the fourth player to play at Penn State and go on to play in the NHL, joining three others who had strong college careers but brief stints at the highest level of professional hockey.
The list was also on the verge of expanding to five when the Nashville Predators recalled recently-signed forward Aiden Fink to debut on Thursday as well, but the former All-American was scratched due to visa issues and will have to wait until at least October to make his debut.
Still, with the greatest generation of Penn State men’s hockey beginning to transition to the NHL level in the past month, it’s important to look back and acknowledge the three men who paved the way for the influx of talent about to hit the league in the next few years:
Casey Bailey
A member of the inaugural Nittany Lions team at the Division I level in 2012-13, Casey Bailey set the standard for the university right out of the gate.
After playing for the Omaha Lancers in the USHL, Bailey made history by scoring Penn State’s first goal at the Division I level in October 2012 in the midst of a freshman season that saw him score 14 goals and 27 total points. The Anchorage, Alaska, native had a down year in 2013-14, but came back with a record-breaking season as a junior, scoring 22 goals with 40 points in 2014-15. No Nittany Lion would top his goal-scoring prowess until Alex Limoges in 2018-19 (23).
It wouldn’t take long for him to debut in the NHL, either. Shortly after leading Penn State to its first winning season in program history, Bailey inked an entry-level contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 21, 2015, and made his NHL debut just five days later as the first Nittany Lion in NHL history. He scored his first career goal in the season finale on April 11, which would prove to be the highlight of his career.
He split 2015-16 between two organizations while honing his craft in the AHL, being traded midseason to the Ottawa Senators. He would play six games for the Senators in 2016-17 as an emergency fill-in due to suspension and injuries, but that would be the final action of his NHL career.
Bailey’s still playing professional hockey to this day, even almost a decade after his most recent NHL action. He spent the 2017-18 season with the New York Islanders’ AHL affiliate before going overseas, playing in Russia, Sweden, Germany, and Austria. He returned to America for 2025-26 to play for the Tahoe Knight Monsters, the ECHL affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights, where he’s notched 54 points in 54 games.
Brett Murray
The most recent Nittany Lion to play in a game prior to Sergeev was Brett Murray, but his journey to the NHL wasn’t as simple as Bailey’s.
For one, Murray came to Penn State as a well-established prospect already, selected in the fourth round by the Buffalo Sabres in 2016 while playing for the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms. After playing the first half of the 2016-17 season in Youngstown, he enrolled at Penn State for the spring semester in 2017 and played 12 games down the stretch, tallying one assist.
Murray was limited to just 21 games in his sophomore season in 2017-18, as he struggled to find his footing on a team that contended for the postseason. After the Nittany Lions were unceremoniously defeated by Denver in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Murray decided to leave college with remaining eligibility as Bailey did, but instead of going to the NHL, he’d return to Youngstown. He finished his time at Penn State with one goal and six assists in 33 games.
After a strong return to the USHL, he signed a one-year deal to play for the Sabres’ AHL affiliate in Rochester before inking his entry-level contract before the 2020-21 season. A much stronger stint in an abbreviated AHL season allowed him to make his NHL debut on May 6, 2021, against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Over the next few seasons, Murray would bounce back and forth between the Sabres and the AHL, playing a total of 26 games over four seasons with the team, scoring two goals and four assists in his longest stint in 2021-22, where he played 19 games for a mediocre Sabres team. After three games with Buffalo in 2024-25, he hit free agency and went overseas, signing to play for Nürnberg Ice Tigers in Germany, where he’s put up 33 points in 38 games this season.
Brandon Biro
The most recent Nittany Lion to make the jump from college to the NHL prior to Sergeev, Brandon Biro started out playing in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) before enrolling at Penn State in 2016-17 as an early pioneer of Canadian hockey players jumping to college hockey.
He made an impact right away in Hockey Valley, scoring six goals and tallying 20 points in his freshman season before progressively getting better along the way. His junior season saw him score a career-high 16 goals with 40 points in 37 games, as Penn State finished the season strong and made the Big Ten Tournament Championship. He was on track for another point-per-game season in Penn State’s best regular season ever in 2019-20 after being named captain, but the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic just after Penn State clinched the Big Ten regular season title.
Biro’s career ended suddenly, but he finished with 41 goals and 116 career points, marks that still rank among the best in Penn State history. A week after the world shut down, the Sabres signed him to an entry-level contract that would begin the following season.
After spending the next year and a half playing in the AHL, Biro was recalled for his NHL debut on February 23, 2022. He only played in that one game before going back down and spent the next year and change as one of the top producers at Buffalo’s AHL affiliate, but returned in November 2023, scoring his first two NHL goals in the same game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Biro would only get four more games after that before being sent back to the AHL for good. While he and his former teammate, Murray, spent years together in the same organization as stars in the AHL, they never played together for the Sabres. Just six days after Biro’s final game on December 5, 2023, Murray was back up for the Sabres to play a brief, two-game stint.
After his contract expired, Biro signed with the Seattle Kraken, where he’d spend the entire 2024-25 season with their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds. He’s spent the most recent season in Russia, splitting time between two different teams in 42 combined games.
The Future
It’s impossible to tell which organizations truly value and will give extended run to young prospects and which are only bringing them up for a trial run. While both Sergeev and Fink have been impressive enough in their brief AHL stints to believe that their rebuilding teams will give them an extended look as 2026-27 begins in October, it’s entirely possible that they could go the same way as these three men, who played a combined 45 games in the NHL.
And even if they do, the number of Nittany Lions who make it to the league figures to spike very soon, regardless. Gavin McKenna remains projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft and is widely expected to debut almost immediately for his new team. Jackson Smith is held in high regard as a former first-round pick. Recent entry-level signees Charlie Cerrato and Matt DiMarsico have already made their AHL debuts, as has former alternate captain Jarod Crespo. There are even a few in the ECHL, which gets a few late bloomers into the league every year.
Penn State’s influence on the NHL has been extremely muted for a program that’s already had a fair amount of success in its short 15 years as a Division I team, but it won’t be that way for very long.
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