McMann being rewarded by Maple Leafs after long, winding journey to NHL

TORONTO -- Bobby McMann thought his dream was over, that he had thrown it away before it even began.

There he was in the spring of 2016, in the backseat of a car with then-assistant coaches Mike Harder and Juliano Pagliero, heading back to the airport after his official visit to Colgate University. He was not feeling quite like himself.

The night before, McMann had been invited out by some of the players.

“I was feeling terrible about it. I’m not usually that type of person, but I wanted to hang out with the boys,” McMann told NHL.com. “I wasn’t feeling too hot.”

Both Harder, now the coach at Colgate, and Pagliero, an associate at Penn State, were concerned, wondering if McMann was about to tell them thanks but no thanks.

“We’re thinking, 'Why is he so quiet? Did he not like the visit? Are we not going to get him?'” Harder said. “About halfway to the airport, he’s like, ‘Hey, can you guys pull over?’”

Nausea had set in, the lingering effect from an evening of fun and frivolity.

“The way he tells it from the backseat, it was like, ‘These guys know I went out last night, they’re going to hate me. Pull the offer,’ and it couldn’t have been more the opposite,” Harder said.

If only McMann had known.

“I was terrified to get back in the car because I thought they were going to pull the offer that second, and I didn’t want to have to tell my dad that,” McMann said. “I got back in, and they were both killing themselves laughing.”

That day, McMann’s long and winding road to the NHL began, a path that started in the small town of Wainright, Alberta, a two-hour drive from Edmonton, four from Calgary, with a population of a little more than 6,000. He completed three seasons with Bonnyville of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, four years at Colgate, signed an American Hockey League contract with Toronto, and played in the ECHL at 25 before ultimately working his way to the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs, becoming part of a team aiming to contend for the Stanley Cup.

On Monday, the next leg of the improbable journey for McMann will see his Maple Leafs (39-24-3), who are tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic Division, take on the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Arena (7:30 p.m. ET; Prime).

It’s not often McMann has a lot of family or friends in Toronto to watch him play, but he was the feature attraction when the Maple Leafs rolled through Alberta in early February.

“Edmonton ended up being about 50. Same in Calgary," he said. "It was supposed to be a couple buddies and my immediate family, and that ended up being 18. I took care of some tickets, for sure. It was so cool. I always dreamed up playing at Rexall [Place] in Edmonton. It was just cool to have my family there and people who have supported me all the way through was pretty sweet and to be able to do well and win.”

McMann scored in each of those two games, a 4-3 win at the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 1 and a 6-3 victory at the Flames on Feb. 4, which was part of a five-game road goal streak that put him alongside Auston Matthews and Mats Sundin as the only Maple Leafs player in the past 30 years with a road goal streak of at least that length.

“Wow, that’s some incredible company,” McMann said. “That’s really cool, wow. That was a fun road trip, it was nice to get those ones with my family there. I had no idea. That’s pretty cool.”

At 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, McMann is an above-average skater and possesses the size that allows him to bring a physical edge to his game. But he has been much more than that this season, refining his offensive game to reach 17 goals in 58 games, already surpassing his NHL career-high of 15 he had in 56 games last season.

At Colgate, the most he scored was 14 goals in 40 games in his sophomore season in 2017-18, though Harder said he felt McMann was capable of more.

“The kid can skate,” Harder said. “We loved that and he could always almost finish. He would lead the league (ECAC) in chances for sure and then fire it over the net. It came to a time where I’d ask him, ‘Bobby, would you rather score a five-hole goal or put it over the net?’ and he’d have to think about it. He just wanted to shoot high and hard all the time.”

He had eight goals in 36 games his junior season, 10 in 34 games in his senior year. Finally, in his first full season with Toronto of the AHL (2021-22), Harder’s message sunk in when he broke out with 24 in 61 games.

The following season, he had 21 goals in 30 AHL games before earning a consistent NHL roster spot in 2023-24.

“I’m not sure I thought he could put up the kind of numbers he’s putting in the NHL, and I’m not even sure Bobby believed it at the time,” said Don Vaughan, the coach at Colgate from 1992-2023. “He put up decent numbers here, but there was nothing that led you to believe he was going to put up the kind of numbers he put up in the American League and now in the NHL."

On March 13, 2024, Toronto signed McMann to a two-year, $2.7 million contract (average annual value $1.35 million). One could argue his play is already exceeding that contract considering McMann ranks sixth among Maple Leafs forwards in average time on ice per game (14:32).

“He’s got great speed and shot, I’ll tell you that,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “He’s got good size, strong. He hasn’t hit his ceiling yet. I think there’s more. I believe there is more there. I do. He can score goals and that power-forward type of play. His speed lets him get on top of people on the forecheck. He’s done a good job on the power play at the net front or in the bumper. He’s really progressed. He’s doing a good job.”