CHL's McKenna to Play at Penn State

The best player in the Canadian Hockey League will be playing in the NCAA this upcoming season.

Gavin McKenna, who led the Medicine Hat Tigers to a Western Hockey league playoff title and an appearance in the 2025 Memorial Cup final, will skate at Penn State University for the 2025-26 campaign. The six-foot center from Whitehorse, Yukon tallied 41 goals and 88 assists for 129 points in just 56 games this past season, and was named the CHL Player of the Year. In three years with the Tigers, he posted 79-165—244 points in 133 career WHL regular-season outings, plus 12-33—45 points in 25 postseason appearances. He also helped Team Canada to gold medals at both the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship and the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

McKenna, 17, who is projected to be selected first overall in the 2026 NHL Draft, is the highest-profile signing to date since the NCAA allowed CHL/major junior players to be eligible to play American college hockey late last year. 

Penn State, which finished 22-14-4 overall last season (9-11-4 Big Ten Conference), is also coming off the first NCAA Frozen Four appearance in the school's varsity history.

Alberta's Berlin Makes NHL Debut in Relief

Matt Berlin (Alberta) got to see his NHL dream come true Saturday night.

The 6-foot-4 Edmonton native dressed for his hometown Oilers that evening as an emergency goaltender, replacing an ill Stuart Skinner. He played the last 2:26 of regulation, stopping the only shot he faced in Edmonton's 7-3 victory over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.

Berlin, 25, is in his third campaign with the University of Alberta, where he has fashioned a 4-0-1 mark with a 2.57 goals-against average in five appearances so far this season. In 21 career contests with the Golden Bears, he has gone 14-5-1 with a 2.09 GAA and three shutouts.

Prior to suiting up for Alberta, Berlin went 28-9-1 (2.57, 2 SO) in the 2018-19 season with Sherwood Park (AJHL). He spent parts of the previous three seasons in the WHL with Spokane, Seattle and Kootenay, going 23-18-8 (3.40, 2 SO) in 57 games. He was also part of Seattle's 2016-17 squad that won the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL postseason champions, which also earned the Thunderbirds a berth in the Memorial Cup that season.

Ferguson Back in NCAA with Denver

Former University of Alaska (Fairbanks) defenseman, assistant coach, and head coach Dallas Ferguson is returning to the college game as an assistant coach with the University of Denver.
He spent last season as head coach of the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League, compiling a 24-37-record.

After beginning his coaching career as an assistant with the North American Hockey League's Fairbanks Ice Dogs in 2002, Ferguson served as an assistant coach with UAF from 2004 to 2008 before being elevated to the rank of head coach. He was named the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) Coach of the Year in his first campaign, and the following year led UAF to its first-ever berth in the NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament, an at-large selection. The Nanooks fell to eventual national champion Boston College, 3-1, in the opening round of the 2010 NCAA Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass.

In 10 seasons overseeing the Nanook hockey program, Ferguson, 44, finished with a career record of 139-151-42, according to USCHO.com. In five of those seasons, he led the Nanooks to 17 or more victories. UAF also won eight consecutive Governor's Cups against rival Alaska Anchorage in his time behind the bench, although three of those Cups were vacated due to self-reported NCAA violations by the university. 

Ferguson was a four-year letterwinner on defense for the Nanooks from 1992 to 1996, as UAF played its first four campaigns in the CCHA. He tallied a career-high six goals and 31 assists for 37 points as a sophomore, according to hockeydb.com, and finished his career with 17-87—104 points and 64 penalty minutes in 138 career collegiate outings.

At DU, Ferguson will join former Nanook forward and head coach Tavis MacMillan, whom Ferguson assisted from 2004 to 2007 at UAF. The Pioneers, 2017 NCAA champions, won the NCHC playoff crown last year, but fell to Ohio State in the NCAA Midwest Regional final in Allentown, Pa.

Ferguson Moving on From Nanooks

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is searching for a new hockey coach.

Longtime head coach and former Nanook defenseman Dallas Ferguson, who had helmed his alma mater's flagship program since 2008, has resigned to take the same position with the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League.

After beginning his coaching career as an assistant with the North American Hockey League's Fairbanks Ice Dogs in 2002, Ferguson served as an assistant coach with the Nanooks from 2004 to 2008 before being elevated to head coach. He was named the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) Coach of the Year in his first campaign, and the following year led UAF to its first-ever berth in the NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament, an at-large selection. The Nanooks fell to eventual national champion Boston College, 3-1, in the opening round of the 2010 NCAA Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass.

In 10 seasons guiding UAF, Ferguson, 44, finished with a career record of 139-151-42, according to USCHO.com. In five of those seasons, he led the Nanooks to 17 or more victories. UAF also won eight consecutive Governor's Cups against rival Alaska Anchorage in his time behind the bench, although three of those Cups were vacated due to self-reported NCAA violations by the university. The Nanooks finished sixth overall in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) last season, their fourth year in the league after the CCHA folded in 2013.

Ferguson was a four-year letterwinner on defense for the Nanooks from 1992 to 1996, when the UAF played its first four seasons in the CCHA. He tallied a career-high six goals and 31 assists for 37 points as a sophomore, according to hockeydb.com, and finished his career with 17-87—104 points and 64 penalty minutes in 138 career outings.

He was awarded the Shawn Chambers Top Defenseman Award three times, according to alaskananooks.com, was an alternate captain as a junior, and was voted the team captain as a senior. Ferguson, who hails from Wainwright, Alberta, graduated from UAF with a bachelor's degree in business administration, and also played five years of professional hockey.

At least three of Ferguson's former charges have advanced to the National Hockey League (NHL), including St. Louis Blues defenseman Colton Parayko, Buffalo Sabres goaltender Chad Johnson, and 2010 Stanley Cup champion Jordan Hendry.

According to the UAF athletic website, Ferguson's last day with the Nanooks is Aug. 17. The Hitmen will open their 2017-18 WHL season on Sept. 22 at Kootenay, while UAF will begin its new campaign on Sept. 29 in Fairbanks with an exhibition game against Simon Fraser.

ADDENDUM: Longtime Nanook assistant coach and former Alabama-Huntsville player and assistant Lance West was named Alaska's new head coach on July 19.

Jacobs Leaves MSU for OHL

Michigan State will need to shore up its blueline a bit next season.

First, Brock Krygier gave up his final two years in East Lansing to transfer to Arizona State's nascent Division I program as a graduate student in April.

Earlier this week, Josh Jacobs made it one-and-done with the Spartans to join the OHL's Sarnia Sting. A second-round NHL draft choice (41st overall) by the New Jersey Devils last year, and was a fourth-round choce by Sarnia in the 2012 OHL Draft, Jacobs tallied nine assists in 35 NCAA games last season with MSU.

According to the MSU website, the Spartans are still expected to return five of their eight defensemen from the 2014-15 season, a campaign in which they finished 17-16-2 overall, and second in the Big Ten with an 11-7-2 conference mark. MSU was also one of the nation’s top defensive teams all season, finishing first in the Big Ten and 13th in the country in goals allowed per game (2.29).

Chicago Blackhawks blueliner Duncan Keith, who begins the Stanley Cup Final tonight in Tampa, is believed to be the last Spartan to leave Michigan State for the major junior ranks, having joined Tacoma (WHL) in 2002. Lansing native and former MSU recruit Reid Boucher jumped to Sarnia in 2011 before ever playing a game for the Spartans, and is now in New Jersey's system.