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Penn State hockey opens as favorite to win 2025-2026 NCAA Championship

Greg Pickelby: Greg Pickel07/09/25GregPickel
NCAA Hockey: Penn State at Michigan
The Penn State Nittany Lions celebrate their win over the Michigan Wolverines at Yost Ice Arena. (Mandatory Credit: Brian Bradshaw Sevald-Imagn Images)

Moments after news broke that Penn State will officially land prized recruit and future top NHL Draft pick Gavin McKenna for his one season before he can turn pro later this week, DraftKings officially opened its 2025-2026 NCAA men’s hockey championship betting pool. As you can probably imagine, the McKenna news shakes things up quite a bit. And that’s good news for the Nittany Lions.

Head coach Guy Gadowsky’s team is favored to win its first NCAA title. It is +400, or 4-to-1, to do so. Michigan State, which was battling Penn State for McKenna, is third at 9-to-1. Boston, which was in the Frozen Four with the Nittany Lions last year, is 8-to-1.

Penn State, which initially looked like it would not make the postseason a year ago, became the hottest team in the sport in the second half of the 2024-2025 season. They made the Big Ten tournament and then the NCAA Tournament, where they beat Maine before going on to win the NCAA regional in Allentown.

Complete coverage of Gavin McKenna picking the Lions

ESPN Bets, whose parent television station ESPN televised McKenna picking Penn State, also has PSU as the favorite to win this year’s title. Here’s what BWI wrote about the news, which became official on Tuesday night:

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“I think we’re more hopeful because of the lesson that the program learned,” Gadowsky said after the semifinals loss to Boston. “And the lesson that we learned isn’t something you can read about and just say, okay, we got it. Like, you can’t. You really need to go through it.

“And the fact that we were so far back, so left for dead and came back to make the Frozen Four, is something I don’t think any of these guys are ever going to forget. I know I’m not. I’m really grateful to be part of this group because of that lesson. It’s not just a lesson in hockey for next year. I know you’re talking about short term, but it’s a lesson that these guys are going to carry with them well beyond Penn State and also well beyond hockey. It’s true.

“You can talk about it as much as you want, oh, that’s the way to do things, but when you’re really faced with a challenge and you’re really in a down spot and you pull each other together and lift each other up and you see success, it’s something you don’t forget. For not only because of the young talent but because of the lessons we learned, yes, I’m very optimistic about the future.”

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