Daniel DeLoach/Utica Observer-Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
It’s pretty tough to make the AHL without being a talented hockey player, but having a dad who serves as the GM of a team certainly doesn’t hurt. It’s safe to assume that’s one of the reasons Will MacKinnon ended up on the Utica Comets, although that’s no longer the case after his father traded him to another team for almost nothing in return.
I’m assuming most people reading this aren’t intimately familiar with Dan MacKinnon, who played college hockey in his native Canada before kicking off a career as an NHL scout and spending time with the Predators, Penguins, and Devils (he had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup after Pittsburgh won in 2016 while he was serving as the director of player personnel).
MacKinnon was poached by New Jersey in the wake of that championship and has slowly but surely worked his way up the ranks en route to becoming the assistant GM of the Devils, a position he holds while simultaneously serving as the GM for the Utica Comets, their AHL affiliate.
He’s also the father of Will MacKinnon, a defenseman who played college hockey at the University of New Hampshire and made his AHL debut with the Comets last season.
Will appeared in 42 games for Utica during the current campaign while posting just four points (all of which came on assists), and things took an interesting turn on Thursday when he was shipped off to the Cleveland Monsters for future considerations in a trade his dad presumably had a hand in orchestrating.
At first glance, trading your son for virtually nothing in return might seem like a harsh move, but he may have also done him a solid.
The Comets are firmly out of the playoff picture with the 23-26-4 record that puts them dead last in the AHL’s North Division, while the Monsters have a much more realistic chance of playing for the Calder Cup while sitting in fourth (the league has a very generous approach to the playoffs that allows the top five of the seven teams that comprise the division they share with Utica to qualify).
I certainly hope that was the motivating factor, as it’s going to be pretty awkward if it wasn’t.