Mike McKenna's Pro Career Defined By Perseverance, Dedication to Hockey
EDITOR'S NOTE: As the Lehigh Valley Phantoms' players were cleaning out their locker stalls and taking part in final exit interviews with the coaching staff, goaltender Mike McKenna was nice enough to sit down with Inside AHL Hockey to take a look back through the years. We talked not only his 14th season of pro hockey, but took a look back through his career and some important people that helped shape his path to be able to not only to play hockey at the pro-level, but also helped him develop as a person off the ice into the happy-go-lucky, positive and one of the truly genuine 'good guys' in this sport that we have all come to know at one point or another through the many different teams/organizations McKenna has been a part of.
ALLENTOWN, PA -- Mike McKenna wasn't always that happy-go-lucky, down to earth guy. Heading into college he described himself as "pretty hard-headed" and had a "the world is against me" attitude. Some pretty typical pre-adulthood stuff.
So how did he grow into the person -- and hockey player -- that he is today?
"It's partly from a mentor, partly from my family," McKenna explained. "My dad is just absolutely the most humble guy on the planet, never pushed me to do anything. [But] I had to learn a lot of lessons along the way."
McKenna credited his first goalie partner in college at St. Lawrence University, a man by the name of Kevin Ackley, for "helping me grow up, frankly."
Though drafted by the Nashville Predators in the sixth round (172nd overall) of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, McKenna went unsigned and ended up beginning his professional hockey career after finishing up his collegiate career (graduating with a degree in Economics) - landing in the ECHL with the Las Vegas Wranglers to begin the 2005-06 season.
"Really when I came out of college and Nashville didn't sign me, as a free agent in the ECHL there's no expectations. You're purely playing to play for the fun of it and to see where it leads you. And that was always my mindset," McKenna recalled, adding, "I'm going to play as long as I have the competitive fire to do it, it financially makes sense and my body holds up."
As it turned out, all three of those things happened.
"Those early years in the ECHL, in Vegas especially, were so much fun because there were no expectations whatsoever. My goal, I wanted to make the American Hockey League. I'll play a couple years in the coast and then if I don't make it to the [AHL] I'll go to Europe and then that'll be that. It'll be a great career, four to five years, then I'll go take my economics degree and do whatever."
McKenna spoke highly of his first goalie partner at the pro level, who is now an ECHL Hall of Famer.
"When I got to pro a guy named Mark Magliarditi was my first goalie partner," McKenna explained. "He played a bulk of his career in the ECHL, and had a little bit of time in the AHL. He's an ECHL Hall of Famer though. You better be a damn good goalie to be that. Mags was unbelievable. I remember looking at him thinking he was this old wily veteran, and he was 28. The next year he was 29 going on 30 - and I'm 36 now - but he was my best friend from day one. He was so good to me. We had so much fun playing together. He was in my wedding -- still one of my close friends. He taught me an awful lot. I was really thankful that I had such a good goalie partner my first year."
Oddly enough, his first AHL game as a member of the Norfolk Admirals was a road contest on January 22nd, 2006 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia against the Phantoms. Even more strange, was that McKenna and the Admirals won his first career AHL game in a shootout similar to Lehigh Valley Phantoms' season finale back in April.
"My long time goalie coach, Chris Economou, who works out of Hatfield, PA at Hockey Heaven, he's one of my best friends in the world and he was at that game 14 years ago, he's here last [Saturday] night. Really cool stuff," McKenna said. "I never expected it, and it kept progressing. It turned into, man, I can actually do the NHL. I kind of kept crossing bridges and kept going. I never expected it."
Wrapping up his 14th season at the pro level, McKenna opened up about the things the common fan might not realize.
"This was the hardest year of my career, McKenna told Inside AHL Hockey in April after the season ended. "I'm 36 now, and 14 years of this - spent four months in the NHL [this season] - most people would say 'it must have been amazing'. Yes, it's amazing to be in the NHL as a player, but as a person when you're in hockey purgatory in a hotel for four months away from your family it's not what you're looking to do. I think it's so easy just to look at the financial aspect of things from the outside and not realize how important family life is."
The four months McKenna is referring to is a stretch from November to February where he had to leave behind his family in Belleville, Ontario where he was playing for the Ottawa Senators' AHL affiliate. McKenna was called up to Ottawa in the beginning of November where he went on to appear in 10 games with a record of 1-4-1 for a Senators' team that was going through tumultuous times.
And that was just the beginning.
Shortly after the turn of the calendar year, McKenna was involved in a trade that saw himself, forward Tom Pyatt and a 2019-6th round draft pick from the Senators moved to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for goalie Anders Nilsson and forward Darren Archibald.
Two days later, he was placed on waivers by the Canucks and claimed by the Philadelphia Flyers.
"I cried this year more than I ever cried in my life, it feels like. And I'm supposed to be happy go lucky and enjoying the NHL life riding jets and eating filet mignon. It was really dark. It was really hard for all of us." My wife had never had to do single parenting. I cook, I cook all the food in the house right? So she had to adjust to that. It's nothing we aren't aware can happen and we couldn't handle. We handled it. And we made it work, but it wasn't ideal and wasn't frankly what we signed up for to start the year. We spent four months not living together, and that was really dark for all of us."
Upon being reassigned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms down the stretch, McKenna was able to be with his family again in the final month of the regular season.
"Thankfully this past month has been amazing to just be a family again and be able to enjoy each other," McKenna said back in April at the Phantoms' exit interview day. [To] watch my daughter go to school and make friends, and be treated so well by an organization like Philadelphia."
As it turns out, McKenna has indeed played his final pro game - the Phantoms' 2018-19 season finale back on April 13th. His AHL career ended the same way it began - with a shootout win.
McKenna retires as the winningest U.S.-born goaltender in American Hockey Leauge history.
What's next for McKenna now that his playing days are behind him?
"If it was 7 or 8 years ago I would be transferring out of hockey for sure and using my degree, but after spending 14 years in the game like this, 15 different organizations and having a phone that's got seemingly everyone in the game in it, I've gotta explore what's available in hockey first," he explained.
His real passion, he added, is broadcasting though he was unsure if he would be good at it.
"I've never really openly said it for a lot of years, but I want to be a broadcaster. That's what I want to do. I want to do it badly."
McKenna has launched his podcast, 6 Degrees With Mike McKenna, which features interviews with former NHL players, some of his former teammates, team bus drivers, equipment managers and more.
For now, McKenna is taking a look at all of his options. He even mentioned coaching as a possibility, but noted it would have to be the right scenario. He had a few in mind he would jump on if he had the chance to.
"I think in whatever capacity I'll still be involved in the game. If I'm not of employee of somebody you'll at least be hearing my podcast if you want to hear it. I love the sport, I absolultely do. I love the battle and compete. It's engrained in me, it's who I am."
