All across the country, 18-year-olds arrive on campuses each fall to experience the college life and live on their own for the first time.
For the first time this past autumn, that group included some of the best hockey players in the world.
The rule change that now allows players from the top-level Canadian Hockey League to be eligible to play NCAA hockey meant some of the best young talent in the world flooded campuses this past season.
The list included this year’s No. 1 overall draft pick, Gavin McKenna, and his Penn State teammate, Jackson Smith. The No. 14 overall selection in the 2025 draft by the Blue Jackets packed up and left his Alberta home to head to State College and keep developing in college colors.
And like most 18-year-olds will tell you, it was a bit of a different world.
“When you first move to the (WHL), you’re still living with a billet family,” Smith said while in Columbus for the Jackets' annual development camp presented by G&J Pepsi. “Then you go to college and you’re on your own. It’s just you and this year my roommate in a little dorm room, in a little 6-by-6 box. That was so much fun. You just grow up a lot.
“You’re living on your own. You have to do everything by yourself. You’re just an 18-year-old kid in college just trying to figure out life, being a student-athlete. I think I took that on really well.”
The biggest key, he said, was self-control; with no one watching over him on a daily basis, he had to manage his own time and stay focused on the tasks at hand. And he did just that, learning the balance that every college student has to find – attending classes, having a little bit of fun and, oh yeah, serving as one of the top players on one of the best teams in college hockey.
To hear Smith tell it, his transition to college hockey was a success off the ice but certainly on it as well. The numbers would support that claim, as the left-shot defenseman with a smooth skating style played major minutes in every situation for the Nittany Lions, finishing fourth among NCAA defensemen with 11 goals and tied for first among freshman blueliners in points (25) this season.
No wonder he had a quick answer when asked where he grew the most in the 12 months from when he was last in Columbus for development camp to this year’s event.
“I think probably my maturity,” he said. “I think I got a lot more mature off the ice and on the ice as well with my game. I’m still a big risk taker; I know that, and it works out for me, and sometimes it doesn’t, too, so I need to work on keeping those mistakes down. But I thought I got a lot better with that this year. I still need to keep improving my defensive game, but I think it’s coming, especially with me maturing and getting older. I think it’s just going to come along with my game.”
It’s a balance every talented young defenseman with offensive skills must learn, as the higher you go in the sport, the more likely making the wrong read to jump up in the play will end up in the back of your net. As prized as that offensive ability can be for those who play on the blue line, the position still has the word “defense” in the name, after all.
Smith’s excellent skating skills, built from his effortless athleticism that made him a high-level swimmer as well as a hockey player in his young days, often allow him to get back into plays if he does get caught up the ice. The key, though, is to just keep working on reads so that when he does jump into plays, it’s always the right move.
“I never want to take away from the offensive side of my game,” Smith said. “That’s what got me here. That's what got me as far as it did. I’m never gonna take away from that side of it. I think it’s just doing that 200-foot game and knowing where to take my chances so that it’s not a chance, it’s more of just, it’s gonna happen.
“That’s probably one of the biggest things I need to work on, but I think it comes with maturity and age. The older I get, I think the more that will just come naturally with the offensive side of the game. That is probably the biggest thing I’m working on this summer so I can go in and be that full 200-foot defenseman so I can make the jump the year after.”
As he noted, he's set to return to Penn State for his sophomore season to keep working on his game, with an eye on chasing his NHL dream after the campaign if all goes well. In the meantime, he thinks he’s in the perfect place to develop at Penn State, where he’s embraced being one of the first high-level players who made the jump from the CHL to college hockey last season.
On the ice, he viewed it as a chance to play fewer games but contests that have more intensity, and the fact he’s going up against older competition has allowed him to sharpen his game. He also had the opportunity to play in front of nearly 75,000 people in Penn State’s outdoor game in Happy Valley vs. Michigan State, something he called “the coolest experience of my life.”
In addition, he’s enjoyed the college aspect of the transition, even if he’s had to find his own meals and do his own laundry. From learning from his older teammates to the social aspect of college life to the unending enthusiasm for Big Ten sports, he found that the transition to the undergrad experience fit him perfectly.
“It was incredible,” Smith said. “I loved it. It was one of the most fun years of my life. Of course I thought I had a good year, but it was a good group of guys. I was able to learn so much from them. Off the ice, it was just a blast. We’re always hanging out on campus. It's cool that you have 18- to 22-year-olds on campus and that’s what the city is run by. It was a lot of fun, and I don’t regret my decision at all to go there. It was an amazing year, and now I'm excited for another one.”
