Bobby McMann escaped the cesspool in Toronto — OK, maybe that’s a little harsh even with the waste of this Maple Leafs’ season — but, to borrow the water analogy, things have gone swimmingly for McMann in Seattle.
No trade deadline acquisition has been better than McMann.
McMann, an unrestricted free agent July 1, has seven goals in eight games with the Kraken and has helped the Pacific division team stay afloat in the pool of teams for the second wild-card spot in the West along with Nashville, Los Angeles, San Jose and Winnipeg, before going into Tuesday’s Oilers game.
While the Maple Leafs have lost their captain Auston Matthews until next fall after his knee surgery, and they just lost their GM Brad Treliving, who was fired Tuesday before Toronto got their pound of flesh in Anaheim with Radko Gudas after he took down Matthews, McMann has moved on. Yes, he still cares about his old club and his ex teammates, his but he is free of that chaos, and he is The McMann in Seattle.
“I saw Tre got let go … obviously they’re trying to make changes to revamp that organization,” said McMann, who turns 30 June 15 and played 208 Leafs games after they signed him as a free-agent out of Colgate U in 2020.
As Seattle prepared to play McMann’s childhood favourite Edmonton Oilers, growing up two hours or so away in Wainwright, the winger known more for his NHL feet than his hands has been a scoring machine for the Kraken. He had 19 goals in 60 games for the Leafs, and has seven in the eight Kraken games, and 11 points.
All good for Seattle today.
And also on July 1 for the other NHL teams in what is a slim free-agent group. McMann is in the 95th percentile as skaters go, in the top 10 fastest players. He is also having a career year scoring goals, with 26 now. The Leafs traded him because he’s UFA in July and they needed draft picks and got a second and a fourth for him.
It looks like a steal right now for the Kraken.
Often there’s a feeling-out period when dealt at the deadline. New team, new city, new dressing room, living in a hotel. But the move to Seattle seems seamless for McMann, from the outside looking in.
“Yeah, sometimes it looks like that,” laughed the 6-foot-2, 217-pound McMann. “But, I’ve had some bounces and I’ve rolled with it.”
“I knew when there was an opportunity to get Bobby, he was the guy we wanted,” said Seattle coach Lane Lambert, who saw McMann in another picture show as Leafs’ assistant coach. “His speed adds an element to our hockey club and being in Toronto, I know what he’s about. He’s a power forward. He scores driving the net.”
It’s been a long and winding road for McMann, who played Junior A in Lloydminster and Bonneyville in the AJHL, then went to Colgate for four seasons on a scholarship. As we know, he was a good player but not a great player in 145 college games, with just 47 goals and 82 points.
But, through his sweat equity, he’s a fine, top-nine NHL winger, for sure.
“Nice knowing that Lane was happy to have me here … that helps with the confidence,” said McMann. “I also talked to (GM Jason) Botterill explaining why they brought me there, for my speed and the other attributes I usually bring. Speed, physicality, shooting. And guys set me up nicely the first few games.”
“Just trying to be the best version of myself,” he said.
An eye-opening version right now, playing left wing on a line with Chandler Stephenson and Kaapo Kakko. Seven goals on 23 shots, five at even strength.
“He’s big, he’s fast, he’s strong,” said the Kraken captain Jordan Eberle. “He put in a couple in right away and he’s kept rolling.”
Going to Seattle was new territory for McMann, though. The Leafs would only play the Kraken twice a season. This wasn’t like Boston, Florida, Tampa or Montreal.
“This is easier. This is a bit of a reset. I didn’t really know anybody on Seattle,” he said.
“If you get traded to a team in the East, a lot of times you don’t like those guys. I’m sure you gain the respect of them, but I can’t imagine going to a team like, uh, Montreal. That would be super weird. It’s almost better to go far away.”
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McMann’s outstanding skating ability was hard work, more than God-given.
“I would do the five circles on the ice, the crossovers all the time. My dad would be saying, ‘How’s your posture, are you sitting up? Is your head up?’ He was part of that. Then in junior and college, I took every rep seriously, every drill. I was always working on my footwork. In college, I thought I could be faster and in college you have time to work on it,” said McMann.
He played one AJHL game in Lloydminster and three seasons for the Pontiacs in Bonnyville, where ex-Oilers forward and current Colorado Avalanche AHL farm team head coach, Mark Letestu, was the big wheel once upon a time.
Being from Wainwright, everybody’s an Oilers fan, though.
“I was in sixth grade in 2006. My guy was Ales Hemsky. I watched their whole Cup run. Those were my heroes. And Ebs, from the later Oiler teams, of course,” said McMann, pinching himself that Eberle now is his teammate.
Growing up in Wainwright meant lots of travel for games.
“Definitely put on a lot of miles for my dad and my mum,” said McMann, whose dad Cecil was his coach until peewee hockey, between his long hours working in a canola plant in Wainwright.
McMann got his work ethic from Cecil and his mother Connie.
“My dad’s retired now, but 38 years he worked in that canola plant. He did it all, in the boiler room, the control room. Then he was a supervisor at the end. And my mum worked in a bank. My parents live in Sherwood Park now because my sister. But my mum? She still works part-time at a bank in Camrose,” said McMann.
As we’re painfully aware, the Oilers have done a poor job in free agency the last two years, bringing in players from other teams — Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson, Andrew Mangiapane. But bank on them taking a run at McMann on July 1.
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