Men's Hockey Trio Honored on Preseason All-B1G TeamsMen's Hockey Trio Honored on Preseason All-B1G Teams

Men's Hockey Trio Honored on Preseason All-B1G Teams

Fink, Gadowsky and McKenna earn B1G Preseason laurels, Penn State picked to finish second

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Junior classmates and 2025 Hobey Baker Top-10 Finalists Aiden Fink (Calgary, Alberta) and Mac Gadowsky (State College, Pa.) were each honored with preseason First-Team All-B1G honors while freshman Gavin McKenna (Whitehorse, Yukon) was named to the second-team as announced by the league office on Thursday afternoon.

Penn State was also picked to finish second behind the two-time defending B1G Champion Michigan State Spartans in the seven-team Big Ten by the leagues head coaches, the highest preseason pick since the Nittany Lions went wire-to-wire to claim the 2019-20 conference championship.

The Blue & White went on an improbable run to the 2025 Frozen Four, it’s first in program history, finishing the year on a 15-5-4 run. The Nittany Lions ended the season ranked No. 5, the highest postseason ranking all-time, after starting the year unranked. Earlier this week, USCHO.com unveiled its 2025-26 preseason rankings and Penn State remains No. 5 to begin the year, its highest preseason ranking all-time.

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Fink, a 2025 Second-Team All-American and the only unanimous selection to the 2024-25 All-Big Ten First Team, earns preseason accolades for the second-straight season after landing on the second-team a year ago.

Fink set new Penn State single-season records across the board with 23 goals and 30 assists for 53 points, a mark that topped the Big Ten and ranked fourth nationally, a season ago. while his 1.41 points per game pace the nation.

The Calgary, Alberta native is just the third Nittany Lion all time to reach 40 points and 20 goals in the same season joining Casey Bailey (22-18-40 in 2014-15) and Alex Limoges (23-27-50 in 2018-19) while he is also the only Nittany Lion to begin his career with back-to-back 30+-point seasons and becomes just the seventh all-time to have multiple such seasons following his 34-point freshman campaign. 

Fink’s 16 career powerplay tallies are already a Nittany Lion record and he is the only player to record multiple hat-tricks in a career following his three-goal outing against Canisius back in January. He has 87 points (38 goals and 49 assists) in 74 career games for a 1.17 point per game average which is also a current Penn State standard while he sits just outside the top-10 all-time for points and goals and looks to become the fastest Nittany Lion to 100 career points all-time.

Gadowsky, the son of head coach Guy Gadowsky, had a breakout campaign in 2024-25 as a member of Army West Point where he led all defensemen in the country with 42 points and 16 goals while being named a Hobey Baker Award Top-10 Finalist.

Gadowsky’s 42 points were a program-record for Army in the AHA era (2003-present) and were the fourth-highest total for a defenseman in AHA history. Gadowsky was named a First-Team All-American at season’s end as well as a First-Team All-AHA selection and the AHA Defeseman of the Year. He was also the only player in the country to register 40-plus points and blocked shots.

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McKenna, the consensus No. 1 overall pick for the 2026 NHL Draft, was the only rookie recognized on the preseason teams earning second-team plaudits. The freshman spent the past three seasons with Medicine Hat in the Western Hockey League leading the Tigers to the WHL Championship this past season and a berth in the Memorial Cup Finals. The 6-foot, 170-pound, left winger was named the WHL and CHL Player of the Year after registering an eye-popping 173 points in 76 games split between the regular-season, playoffs and Memorial Cup. He became the third-youngest CHL Player of the Year behind NHL greats Sidney Crosby and John Tavares.

McKenna finished second in the WHL with 129 points during the regular season while his 88 assists paced the league and his 41 goals were good for fifth to go along with a plus-60 rating, the best plus/minus in the league. He finished the regular season with points in 40-straight games before adding points in his first 14 playoff games. The 54-game point streak is a modern CHL record dating back to 2000.

During his first full season in the WHL in 2023-24 he was named both the WHL and CHL Rookie of the Year posting 97 points in 61 games on 34 goals and 63 assists before adding two goals and four assists for six points in five playoff games. In 162 total WHL games with Medicine Hat, McKenna amassed 295 points on 94 goals and 201 assists.

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Penn State is set to open the 2025-26 season on the road in Tempe, Arizona with a nonconference series against Arizona State on October 3-4.

For more information on the 2025-26 season, visit the men's hockey ticket page at GoPSUsports.com or call 1-800-NITTANY Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.