Noteworthy: Is an NCAA deal too good to pass up?

By Bruce Penton on May 21, 2025.

Say it ain’t so, Gavin.

If you follow hockey at all, it’s hard to avoid the buzz surrounding Tigers’ superstar Gavin McKenna and the real chance he might not play for the Tigers next year, his draft season. With the recent rules changing around Canadian Hockey League players being eligible for National Collegiate Athletic Association competition, the hot talk in the hockey world is McKenna is being highly recruited by some of the top hockey schools in the U.S.

His team-mate, Cayden Lindstrom, who was drafted last year by Columbus but sat out most of this past season due to a back injury, is reportedly being sent by the Blue Jackets to Michigan State to play during the 2025-26 season and, says the website RG.org, “the buzz is loud and it’s real” that McKenna will join him.

It might all come down to money. U.S. colleges can now make lucrative Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals for top athletes. Some top football and basketball players in the college ranks pull in six- or seven-figure deals while playing college sports. While hockey doesn’t generate the revenue of football or basketball, some schools in hockey hotbeds like Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Boston and Denver can offer lucrative deals to top players.

The RG.org site reports that “multiple NHL sources have confirmed to RG that the chatter around McKenna, the projected top pick overall at the 2026 NHL draft, making the jump to NCAA hockey next season is for real.”

“I don’t know for a fact what (McKenna) is going to do, but I’m hearing more and more that there are some pretty big college teams getting ready to give him an offer he can’t refuse,” the longtime NHL executive said.

McKenna’s agent/adviser Byron Ritchie told Vancouver Province reporter Steve Ewen “(The NCAA opportunity) is obviously there. It’s a viable option for him. We haven’t exposed him to any schools yet, just because we’re trying to limit distractions and keep his feet where they are and focus on this season.”

If he played for the Tigers next year, McKenna would generate the kind of excitement around the Western Hockey League that Connor Bedard did in his final season. WHL team owners, whose cash registers rang loudly whenever Bedard came to town, would be tempted to counter the NCAA threat with a financial deal of their own.

Had Medicine Hat been awarded the 2026 Memorial Cup, McKenna would almost certainly have decided to stay with his WHL team. Instead, Kelowna was given the event and it may just end up costing the WHL a full season of McKenna Mania.

On the website elite prospects.com., Ritchie was quoted as saying the obvious about the decision to give Kelowna the Memorial Cup: “He was extremely disappointed, especially considering the team Medicine Hat has.”

Meanwhile, all eyes are on Rimouski, Que., this week as the Tigers strive to win the 2025 Canadian championship at the Memorial Cup tournament.

• The annual Kidney Walk fund-raiser will happen Sunday, June 1 in Medicine Hat, and organizers have set a fundraising goal of $35,000 between the walks in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge.

The Lethbridge walk is being held May 31, the day before the one in Medicine Hat.

Local participants will gather at Medicine Hat College at 9 a.m. to get the walk under way. Organizers are hoping for a record turnout, of course, to support family, friends and community members in southern Alberta who are living with kidney disease.

“Whether you take the step to walk, fundraise, donate or simply come out to cheer participants on, our community needs you,” said a press release.

The release showed the fundraising total is already about one-third of the way to $35,000.

See kidneywalk.ca for more information.

• Pet peeve: Edmonton Oilers’ play-by-play announcer Jack Michaels is guilty of telling viewers that in a 0-0 game in the third period, that “there is no score” in the game.

Of course there’s a score. It’s 0-0. The game has featured no goals, but there is a score.

That should be taught in Announcing School 101.

• Short snappers: Look up into the Medicine Hat sky starting Thursday as hot air balloons will be hovering over the city during the annual Rise Up festival. How popular is this event? All balloon rides have been sold out already. … Hats off to the local Prairie Pride Guild for helping to beautify the city with its spring cleanup last Saturday. … Was there a more heart-warming gesture in Spokane last Friday night than Tigers’ captain Oasiz Wiesblatt accepting the Ed Chynoweth WHL championship trophy and then immediately calling goaltender Harrison Meneghin over to hoist the bauble? Meneghin’s father passed away just prior to the start of the playoffs and the team rallied around their all-star goalie in his time of grief. … After successful stints as general manager with Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers, former Tigers’ goalie Ken Holland has been hired as GM of the Los Angeles Kings.

Bruce Penton is a retired News editor who may be reached at brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca

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