‘Put The Work In’ McFarland Brings NHL Experience, Work Ethic To Hitmen
Paul McFarland is ready to get to work.
Introduced Thursday as the new Calgary Hitmen head coach, the 38-year-old lands in the Stampede City after more than a decade behind NHL and OHL benches.
He most recently spent three seasons with the Seattle Kraken, but in returning to major junior hockey, he gets another crack at running his own bench after doing the same with the Kingston Frontenacs for three seasons.
“I’ve spent the last six years being an NHL assistant,” he said. “It’s the best league in the world, you get a chance to work with the best players in the world and a lot of smart people, there’s obviously great experience in that but for me, personally, the opportunity to come back and get the opportunity to be a head coach again was a huge motivation.”
McFarland’s hiring is just the latest chapter in a busy spring for Hitmen general manager Garry Davidson, a stretch that’s also included promoting Cass Bruni to assistant GM, two Drafts and the signing of Flames prospect Axel Hurtig.
The opportunity to add a head coach with NHL pedigree doesn’t come around every day, so Davidson pounced on the opportunity when it became clear McFarland was on the market.
“The resume speaks for itself, where he’s been, what he’s done,” Davidson said Thursday. “It emulates what all of our players are going to go through as well, he’s been there, done that, mentored under some really good people.
“I think one of the key people in this was our communication with (former Hitmen head coach and current Kraken assistant) Dave Lowry; they worked together, so that was critical. Dave obviously spent a lot of time here, I went head-to-head with him in Everett when he was in Victoria so that was a key part of the whole thing. Again, Paul’s resume speaks for itself; he checks every box.”
McFarland’s focus is on development, both on and off the ice, and his story is one that can act as a source of inspiration for his new players.
Never drafted by an NHL club, he went to school after four OHL seasons – a run that included a Memorial Cup title with Kitchener in 2003 – finding his way to the Show as a coach once his playing career was over.
“The CHL and the Western Hockey League, for me it’s the best development league in the world for junior hockey players,” he said. “It’s two-fold: the hockey obviously, we’re all here to help them and we want to see as many of our guys play in the NHL, but the reality is not every guy is going to get that opportunity, so we’ve got to make sure we’re developing people as well.
“Really, I should be the worst-case scenario for any guy that walks through a CHL door. I was fortunate enough to play in the CHL for four years, won a Memorial Cup, ended up going on and getting a degree.”
On the ice, McFarland inherits a club that – despite icing one of the youngest rosters in the WHL – missed the playoffs by only two points this past spring.
“You look at the group, obviously they had five 16-year-olds last year, a lot of them had great seasons for being that young in the league, then you had some older players that took great strides as well,” McFarland said of his new players. “Year-to-year, obviously in junior hockey, you expect players to grow, to take another step and I think with more experience with our younger players, our older players hopefully taking on more of a leadership role and having a little more consistency to their game, we’re going to be able to grow as a group.”
He sees potential, but in that potential there’s also an expectation that the work ethic will be there to match.
“I really believe this group is set up to have success here moving forward, but we’re going to have to put the work in, let’s be honest,” he said. “We talk about raising expectations and raising the bar, we’re going to have to make sure we work at it.
“That work’s going to start today.”
