Penton: McKenna departure a big blow for WHL
By Bruce Penton
The most electrifying player in Western Canada hockey circles is chasing big bucks south of the border and won’t be displaying his ‘how-did-he-do-that?’ talent this winter in the Western Hockey League.
Gavin McKenna, 17, and the presumed No. 1 pick in the National Hockey League draft 11 months from now, announced July 8 he would be enrolling at Penn State and playing for the school’s hockey team..
Instead of making $100 a week or so playing for the Medicine Hat Tigers and facing a gruelling 68-game schedule that would have taken him on cold bus rides to 22 other cities in the west, McKenna and his new Penn State mates will travel in luxury — short regional bus trips and the occasional air flight.
What was the attraction? Why Penn State over Medicine Hat, which could have made another legitimate run at the Memorial Cup? There were, in fact, 700,000 attractions. As in $700,000, the reported value of the deal he signed with Penn State under the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s NIL (name, image, likeness) policy.
The NIL policy resulted from a series of legal challenges aimed at compensating athletes for the commercial use of their identities. It wasn’t too long ago that an aspiring NHLer who had designs on playing college hockey in the U.S. could not appear in a WHL game, lest his NCAA eligibility be ruined for competing as a ‘professional.’ The WHL is hardly a professional league, but players do get some minor compensation so they can fill up their gas tank, or buy an occasional Big Mac.
But all that changed when the NIL policy came into effect in 2022. Thirteen years earlier, a UCLA basketball player, Ed O’Bannon, filed a class action suit against the NCAA, arguing anti-trust laws were being violated by the schools profiting from athletes’ names and images, with no compensation going to the players.
He eventually won the suit, and the door flew wide open for every college sport in the U.S. to pay its players for helping to fill 70,000 seat football stadiums, 18,000-seat basketball field houses and 15,000-seat arenas. Player agents swooped in to represent the best athletes and negotiate deals based on ability and potential media exposure.
McKenna’s reported $700,000 deal with Penn State will be one of the most lucrative of all hockey players. He’ll suit up for the Nittany Lions for one year before getting drafted and turning pro in 2026. Last year, Penn State played 40 games, allowing players plenty of time for schoolwork (as if!) and practice. For players in the WHL, it’s almost a full-time job from September to April.
While McKenna is a big winner, the list of losers is longer: Thousands of WHL fans won’t get to see the next generational player; WHL owners will lose big at the gate, because McKenna would be a huge draw; and the Tigers, who had hopes of contending for the WHL title again this year, appear en route to a mediocre season.
Unfortunately, this U.S. college NIL policy could be a Canadian junior hockey killer.
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Headline at the onion.com: “WNBA To Expand Into Three More Cities As Caitlin Clark Cloning Experiment Nears Completion”
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “Quote of the week comes from Urban Meyer on an unnamed college program offering him a job as a general manager, where his main task would have been dealing with the agents of 17- and 18-year-old high school and college football players. ‘I’d rather step on a rusty nail and pull it out myself.’”
Bianchi again: “By the way, can you imagine a negotiating session between Urban Meyer and a sports agent? You’d need a referee, a priest, a federal investigator and a tetanus shot.”
Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com, an avid San Francisco Giants fan: “Los Angeles Dodgers have lost seven consecutive games for the first time since 2017. Thoughts and prayers.”
Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg: “The Colorado Rockies are now the third worst team in MLB history. To which the Chicago White Sox said, ‘Hey guys, we're working this side of the street.’”
RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com: “Soccer Gold Cup favourite Canada was eliminated in the quarterfinal by Guatemala. This might be harder for Canadians to bear than Justin Bieber.”
Headline at theonion.com: “White Sox Fans Asked To Remove Polish Sausage From Mouths During National Anthem
Blue Jays’ manager John Schneider, about his team’s recent 10-game winning streak: “In about 10 days, I went from very mediocre to a really good manager.”
Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: “An old joke of my father’s: ‘I have two sons. One at Penn State. The other at State Pen.’”
Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca