RALEIGH, N.C. — Just for clarity, Mathew Barzal noted that his assistant coach, John MacLean, is “Johnny Mac.” And his teammate, rookie center Kyle MacLean, is “just Mac.”
The unique father-son/assistant coach-player duo has become less of a storyline around the New York Islanders. When the younger MacLean plays the way he did in his NHL playoff debut on Saturday, scoring the lone Islanders goal in the 3-1 loss while playing 12:10 on the third line, it’s not about who his father is. It’s now about how the 24-year-old undrafted free agent is starting to make himself indispensable at the aging bottom of the Islanders forward group.
“I keep saying it — he’s earned everything he’s got so far,” Patrick Roy said.
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MacLean came to his first Islanders prospect camp in the summer of 2019, before his fifth junior season with Oshawa of the OHL. John was still an assistant with the Coyotes then but Lou Lamoriello certainly had the inside track in getting the younger MacLean into camp — John played and coached for nearly 20 years with the Devils when Lamoriello was in charge, so the family connection was already strong.
MacLean signed an AHL contract the next year and became a mainstay in Bridgeport, playing 200 AHL games over four years. With the Islanders’ bottom six relatively set, there wasn’t much thought of a call-up before this season. There was also the lack of flashy stats, with MacLean’s best season in Bridgeport coming last year when he had 11-16-27 in 67 games.
But some players are built more for the NHL than the AHL. “His IQ and skill probably go a little underrated, to be honest,” Barzal said. “You watch him out there, he makes a lot of plays, he’s got great feet. He’s definitely brought a spark to our group. He’s going to be great for us for a long time.”
MacLean’s biggest spark has energized the longstanding fourth line, with his emergence as a reliable center allowing Roy to move Casey Cizikas into a different role as the primary puck-hunter/forechecker alongside Bo Horvat and Barzal. And Roy had no qualms about putting MacLean between Anders Lee and Pierre Engvall on Saturday with J-G Pageau out.
“It’s been a while now,” Roy said on Saturday when asked how much he liked MacLean’s Game 1. “He’s getting more and more confident out there and he’s playing really good hockey. He was with two experienced players and he had another solid game.”
MacLean’s biggest goal of the four he had in 32 NHL games came in the playoff clincher in Newark on Monday, when he jammed in a second try off the rush on a feed from Lee — the two happened to be out there together and maybe Roy saw a little something when deciding how he’d formulate his lines with Pageau out. Lee was a force in Game 1, playing the same physically strong game he’s been playing the last three weeks, and MacLean, though about 40 pounds lighter than Lee, plays a similar style.
The father-son dynamic could certainly be fraught. John came in as an assistant to Lane Lambert before the 2022-23 season, long after Kyle had established himself in the AHL, and now Roy has inherited John as an assistant. So it remains to be seen if John stays on when the offseason rolls around. Roy said there are no issues at all with coaching alongside John while coaching Kyle.
“It doesn’t really change anything. I coached my sons in junior,” Roy said. “I think (John) understands we make decisions for the team and not for the family. If I felt Kyle is the right fit then that’s what we do to win. He’s got points in the last three games here, so I just want him to continue that way.”
MacLean is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, so he’s earned a raise from the $800,000 he’s making at the NHL level after breaking through this season. With the mainstay fourth-liners all getting into their mid-30s, MacLean’s emergence has added some youth to the way both Lamoriello and Roy can think about the fourth line going forward.
“Everyone in that room is pumped for him, the way he’s playing,” Barzal said. “He’s a great kid.”
(Photo of Kyle MacLean celebrating his Game 1 goal: James Guillory / USA Today)
