In what’s been a transformative offseason for Penn State men’s hockey, head coach Guy Gadowsky is set to reel in his biggest fish yet.

In a heated and contested recruiting battle, star WHL forward Gavin McKenna, the consensus No. 1 prospect for the 2026 NHL Draft, will reportedly commit to Penn State, according to Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects.

McKenna, one of the biggest recruits to ever commit to any Penn State athletic program, was sought after by all of college hockey, but Penn State pulled ahead of the pack, with McKenna ultimately choosing them over Big Ten rival Michigan State. McKenna made visits to State College and East Lansing at the end of June, but decided Happy Valley was home.

The Whitehorse, Yukon, native is a 6’0″, 165-pound left-winger who is highly regarded as one of the best Canadians to come through the ranks of junior hockey in recent memory.

Hockey insider Elliotte Friedman was the first to drop the tea leaves of where McKenna was leaning on June 7 on his 32 Thoughts podcast, with the episode appropriately named “It Must Have Been the Ice Cream”. Creamery ice cream really is irresistible.

McKenna doesn’t turn 18 until December and spent the 2024-25 season with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League, putting up 41 goals and 129 total points. Washington Capitals prospect Andrew Cristall (132) is the only player to put up more.

McKenna’s outstanding season saw him named the David Branch Player of the Year as the best Canadian amateur player, an award previously won by the likes of Mario Lemieux in 1984, Sidney Crosby in 2004 and 2005, Connor McDavid in 2015, and recent No. 1 picks Alexis Lafreniere and Connor Bedard.

McKenna figures to only play one season with the blue and white this winter, but he’ll be joining an extremely talented team in Happy Valley that’s not only coming off of a Frozen Four appearance, but has added recent star commitments Jackson Smith, Pierce Mbuyi, and Luke Misa, while also landing Hobey Baker finalist Mac Gadowsky in the transfer portal.

It’s been reported that the Nittany Lions remain in the hunt for fellow top NHL prospects Porter Martone and Michael Misa, Luke’s brother.

NEWARK, N.J. – Harvard Women’s Ice Hockey is proud to share that Assistant Coach Venla Hovi recently served as a guest coach at the New Jersey Devils Development Camp, held earlier this month in Newark, N.J. Hovi assisted the Devils coaching staff on the ice by running drills and mentoring the players during the three-day training camp.
 
A former Olympian and seasoned international player, brought her wealth of experience with her to the NHL camp, working alongside the Devils’ coaching staff and top prospects. The invitation is the second she has received from the Devils staff after her appearance at the development camp in in 2024.
 
STORY: Guest Coach, Venla Hovi, Gains Insight at Devils Camp (July 19, 2024)
 
Hovi’s involvement with the Devils adds to her already impressive résumé, which includes two Olympic medals with Finland and a successful playing and coaching career across North America and Europe. She joined the Crimson staff in 2023 and has been instrumental in the growth of the program since her arrival in Cambridge.
 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University running back Jahiem White was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team announced today by the conference.

All-Big 12 offensive and defensive teams, as well offensive, defensive and newcomer of the year were voted on by media members who cover the league.

White, a junior from York, Pennsylvania, is the lone Mountaineer player named to the league’s preseason offensive and defensive teams.

Last year, White led the Mountaineers with 844 yards rushing, including a season-high 158 yards in a 38-14 victory over Oklahoma State. He also topped the 100-yard mark in games against Albany and Texas Tech.

White averaged 5.7 yards per carry and scored seven touchdowns.

In two seasons with the Mountaineers, he has rushed for 1,686 yards and scored 11 touchdowns on the ground while catching 24 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns.

White gained a career-high 204 yards in a home victory over Cincinnati during his freshman season in 2023.

West Virginia fans are excited about the pairing of White and returning coach Rich Rodriguez, who has demonstrated throughout his coaching career a knack for developing productive ball carriers.

Avon Cobourne got the bulk of his school-record 5,164 yards while playing for Rodriguez at West Virginia, while College Football Hall of Famer Steve Slaton produced nearly 4,000 yards on the ground in three seasons playing for Rodriguez at WVU.

Quincy Wilson and Noel Devine were other top-notch ground gainers from the tailback position playing for Rodriguez at West Virginia.

When Rodriguez later coached at Arizona, Ka’Deem Carey led the country in rushing with 1,929 yards in 2013, including an average of 148.4 yards per game.

More recently, Tre Stewart rushed for 1,604 yards and scored 23 touchdowns last year in Rodriguez’s spread offense at Jacksonville State, ranking third nationally in both categories.

Arizona State sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt was voted Preseason Offensive Player of the Year; Texas Tech senior linebacker Jacob Rodriguez was selected Preseason Defensive Player of the Year while Utah junior quarterback Devon Dampier, a New Mexico transfer, was picked as the Newcomer of the Year.

The league, which is conducting its annual media day activities later this week at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, is no longer releasing a preseason media poll.

Arizona State, predicted to finish in last place last year, won the conference championship and represented the Big 12 in the college football playoffs. 

2025 Preseason All-Big 12 Team

Offensive Player of the Year: Sam Leavitt, QB, Arizona State, RS-So.

Defensive Player of the Year: Jacob Rodriguez, LB, Texas Tech, Sr.

Newcomer of the Year: Devon Dampier, QB, Utah, Jr.

Preseason All-Conference Team (Offense)

QB: Sam Leavitt, Arizona State, RS-So.

RB: Bryson Washington, Baylor, RS-So.

RB: Jahiem White, West Virginia, Jr.

FB/H-Back: Will Swanson, Kansas State, Sr.

WR: Eric McAlister, TCU, Sr.

WR: Chase Roberts, BYU, RS-Sr.

WR: Jordyn Tyson, Arizona State, RS-Jr.

TE: Joe Royer, Cincinnati, RS-Sr.

OL: Ben Coleman, Arizona State, Gr.

OL: Spencer Fano, Utah, Jr.

OL: Bryce Foster, Kansas, RS-Jr.

OL: Caleb Lomu, Utah, RS-So.

OL: Jordan Seaton, Colorado, So.

PK: Will Ferrin, BYU, RS-Sr.

PR/KR: Josh Cameron, Baylor, RS-Sr.

Preseason All-Conference Team (Defense)

DL: David Bailey, Texas Tech, Sr.

DL: Dontay Corleone, Cincinnati, RS-Sr.

DL: C.J. Fite, Arizona State, Jr.

DL: Lee Hunter, Texas Tech, Sr.

DL: Domonique Orange, Iowa State, Sr.

LB: Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech, Sr.

LB: Austin Romaine, Kansas State, Jr.

LB: Keaton Thomas, Baylor, RS-Jr.

DB: Xavion Alford, Arizona State, RS-Sr.

DB: Bud Clark, TCU, Sr.

DB: Jeremiah Cooper, Iowa State, Sr.

DB: DJ McKinney, Colorado, Jr.

DB: Jontez Williams, Iowa State, RS-Jr.

P: Palmer Williams, Baylor, Jr.

 

DENVER – Forward Connor Caponi of the University of Denver hockey team has signed a professional contract with the Cardiff Devils in the Elite Ice Hockey League for the 2025-26 season, the United Kingdom-based club announced on Monday.
 
Caponi, 25, recorded nine points on five goals and four assists while appearing in 42-of-44 games as a graduate student for the Pioneers in 2024-25. He led the team with a .564 winning percentage at the faceoff circle and registered the most penalties with 65 minutes throughout the campaign. He also added 25 blocked shots and finished with a plus-8 rating. 
 
The two-time NCAA National Champion set the program record for career games played by skating in his 169th contest on Feb. 8 at Arizona State. He finished his time at DU with 185 career games, tied for the second-most all-time in NCAA history. Caponi missed his first and only games of the season on Dec. 6-7 at Western Michigan due to a lower-body injury; he had played in 62 straight games dating back to the 2022-23 season prior to those outings. 
 
The Milwaukee native scored his first career game-winning goal last season, doing so against his home state team on Oct. 26 versus the Wisconsin Badgers. Caponi matched a career high of 15 penalty minutes on Nov. 9 against Lindenwood and recorded his 150th career penalty minute on Jan. 10 versus Miami. He scored on Feb. 1 versus Omaha and added an assist the next game on Feb. 7 at Arizona State, marking the third time in his career that he registered points in consecutive contests. 
 
In the postseason, he registered a goal and an assist to secure his fourth career multi-point game in Game 2 of the NCHC Quarterfinals versus Colorado College on March 15. The fifth-year player recorded three goals in a five-game stretch from March 15-28, including tallies on March 21 versus Arizona State in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semifinals in St. Paul, Minnesota, and again on March 28 versus Providence in the NCAA Regional Semifinals at Manchester, New Hampshire. 
 
As an alternative captain the past two seasons, he posted personal highs in 2023-24 during his senior campaign with five goals and eight assists for 13 points, appearing in all 44 games for the Pioneers. Caponi added 26 penalty minutes and was ranked fifth on the team with 22 blocked shots. He played in his 100th career game and had two assists for his then-second career multi-point outing in the season opener on Oct. 7, 2023 at Alaska Fairbanks.
 
For his 2022-23 junior year, he tied a previous career high with two goals and four assists for six points while playing in 39 matchups. He went 262-for-536 in faceoffs and added 26 penalty minutes, and Caponi scored in the postseason on March 10, 2023 in Game 1 of the NCHC Quarterfinals versus Miami. He took home his first NCAA National Championship in the 2021-22 season, as he registered four goals and five points and placed fifth on the team in both faceoff wins (108) and penalty minutes (37). 
 
In Caponi’s 2020-21 freshman campaign, he was one of seven Pioneers to play in all 24 games, where he tallied four points (two goals and two assists) in the COVID-shortened season. He made his collegiate debut on Dec. 2, 2020 versus Minnesota Duluth and recorded first career point with a goal on Dec. 12, 2020 versus Minnesota Duluth. He registered a goal in the regular-season finale versus Colorado College on Feb. 27 and tallied an assist in DU’s NCHC Quarterfinal win over Omaha on March 13, 2021 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 
 
A five-time member of the NCHC Academic All-Conference Team and a 2024-25 NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete, Caponi was awarded DU hockey’s Dr. Ralph Verploeg Most Inspirational Player Award this past year for his record-breaking season with the Pios. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance from Denver in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
 
Caponi was part of the winningest senior class in Denver hockey history that won 124 games over the last four seasons, two Penrose Cups as NCHC regular-season champions in 2022 and 2024, the 2024 NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship, four Gold Pan trophies over rival Colorado College, reached three NCAA Frozen Fours and earned national championships in 2022 and 2024.

ESPN ranked every Big Ten team ahead of the 2025 college football season, using their SP+ metrics. Confused? Well, we’ll give you an explanation via ESPN.

“One other reminder: SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency,” ESPN’s Bill Connelly wrote. “It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and along those lines, these projections aren’t intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the season. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather.”

The preseason factors for this list include returning production, recent recruiting and recent history. So when you put that all together, you’ll see how all of these Big Ten teams stack up going into the 2025 season. Every team’s national rank is included in parentheses.

The Buckeyes are at the top of the Big Ten and also the top of the country, when it comes to ESPN’s SP+ rankings. Ohio State is the defending champ and could very well repeat.

Having to replace key positions could prevent that, but they still have stars such as Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs. Whomever Ryan Day picks as his starting quarterback will be the biggest move of the offseason.

Penn State plans to run it back in 2025 like Ohio State just did last season. The goal? A national championship victory.

ESPN has them as the second best team in the Big Ten right now and a top three team in the country. Drew Allar, Kaytron Allen, Nick Singleton, Dani Dennis-Sutton, the stars are endless!

The Ducks won the Big Ten last season, going 13-0 and earning the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. They slipped up against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl but have a chance to win it all this year too.

ESPN has them No. 7 overall, which goes to show the strength of the conference, being that Oregon is third among their foes. Dante Moore takes over at QB and it’ll be an intriguing storyline considering he took a year behind Dillon Gabriel.

Here’s where it gets interesting for the Big Ten and college football at large. Michigan is back near the top of the conference after an average season in 2024.

Sherrone Moore goes into Year 2 with a better quarterback situation and some solid pieces on both sides of the ball. The fact that ESPN’s metrics have the Wolverines in the top 10 is telling. This could be a playoff team after a year off.

Illinois will also try to make it to the College Football Playoff this season as ESPN ranked them in the top 20 nationwide. It’s good for the top five in the Big Ten.

Luke Altmyer is back at QB, giving the Fighting Illini a leg up on most teams in the conference. Bret Bielema’s crew won 10 games last season and that could be a possibility this fall.

Curt Cignetti pushed every right button in 2024 and now has a reloaded roster as he tries to lead the Hoosiers back to the CFP. Fernando Mendoza is in at QB from Cal, giving him another talented signal caller.

ESPN ranked them in the upper half of the Big Ten and a top 25 team in the country. But, it might be hard to replicate last year’s record setting season. Still, they have the talent.

The Hawkeyes being a top 30 program just feels right year to year. They’re in the top half of the Big Ten and ESPN likes how Iowa projects into 2025 and beyond.

Kirk Ferentz and crew are always going to be a tough out and that could be the case again this year. Although, we don’t think they’ll necessarily be a playoff threat. But we can’t rule it out!

8. USC (30)

USC is trying to avoid another disappointing season, but facts are facts right now. Lincoln Riley’s time with the Trojans has been mediocre since his debut season.

That doesn’t mean the team doesn’t have talent, especially on offense and what Riley does with his quarterbacks. But the age old question is can the defense actually improve? They’ll need that to compete at the top of the Big Ten.

The Huskers’ expectations are certainly rising going into 2025. Second-year quarterback Dylan Raiola will be the man who drives the bus.

Matt Rhule getting Nebraska to rise in the Big Ten and nationwide would be par for the course, given his coaching history. But right now, they’ll have to prove it as ESPN has them in the middle of the conference.

The Badgers underwent a makeover with Luke Fickell at the helm. Going into 2025, Wisconsin could see some improvements, despite being No. 10 in the Big Ten.

ESPN still has them as a top 40 team in the country, which might mean postseason when it’s all said and done. Don’t be surprised if this team rises up the ranks a bit.

The Huskies will go into Year 2 under Jedd Fisch. There were some ups and downs last season and ESPN expects them to be a middling Big Ten team this year.

As far as the national ranking? Well, top 40 isn’t too shabby. There are a lot of transfers on defense, six of which are projected starters a little less than two months away from the season. 

PJ Fleck is ready to row the boats back to the postseason in 2025 and maybe a little further. But right now, ESPN has them in the bottom half of the Big Ten right now.

Still, being a top 40 team projects out to a team that’ll make a bowl game. Transfers on the offensive line should help reshape the unit to success.

Rutgers has made a bowl game two years in a row as Greg Schiano has something cooking during his second stint at the school. The defense was a problem last season as there were numerous missed opportunities at nine, maybe even 10 wins.

Competing in the Big Ten this year will be harder with a more difficult schedule. There’s a good offense to work with as this is still a top 50 team according to ESPN, so a third straight bowl game should be a possibility.

14. UCLA (51)

DeShaun Foster hopes for more success in Year 2, which would include getting to a bowl game. Right now, they’re in the bottom third of the Big Ten per ESPN.

Nico Iamaleava is at QB after transferring from Tennessee. How that translates is anyone’s guess, but the Bruins certainly have a talented player at the position.

Jonathan Smith is working to rebuild Michigan State and they’ll have to climb out from the bottom of the Big Ten, per ESPN. There’s a bit of a gap between UCLA and MSU at this point too.

Aidan Chiles is an intriguing QB talent and could turn into something worthwhile throughout the course of the season. Like the Bruins, the Spartans were 5-7 last season and making a bowl game should be the goal, despite a lower ranking.

The Terrapins might be in a bit of a rebuild now as Mike Locksley turns the calendar to the 2025 season. They’re near the bottom of the Big Ten in these rankings.

ESPN also has them far lower than a few teams just above them in the conference. It could be another down year for this crew.

Northwestern had a lot of magic in 2023 under David Braun. It all came crashing back down to earth last season and ESPN probably expects another year of four or five wins, based on the metrics.

The Wildcats are second to last in the Big Ten rankings going into the season. Maybe Braun and crew have a few more surprises up their sleeves.

Purdue is undergoing a total rebuild with new head coach Barry Odom. He’s brought some of his guys over from UNLV for a fresh start as well.

The Boilermakers will have to do a lot of work to climb up the ranks of the Big Ten. ESPN’s rankings have them outside the top 100 nationwide as well.