"I was afraid": Jared McCann opens up about stressful Canucks experience

Why did the Vancouver Canucks trade Jared McCann in 2016?

A first-round pick by GM Jim Benning in 2014, McCann broke into the NHL one year later as a 19-year-old rookie. But before he celebrated his 20th birthday, Benning traded McCann to the Florida Panthers in a deal that brought Erik Gudbranson to Vancouver.

One rumour that gained traction at the time was that McCann apparently had a bad attitude.

Former teammate Andrey Pedan was quoted saying that McCann was the only player on the team he couldn’t get along with. “Sometimes he acted like he’s the lonely star here,” the Lithuanian-born defenceman reportedly said less than a week after McCann was traded.

Then there was Beth Bartkowski, the hilarious mother of former Canucks defenceman Matt Bartkowski, who appeared to take a shot at McCann during an otherwise heartwarming radio interview with Sekeres and Price.

“Every guy on the Canucks is the nicest guy… oh, my God, except that little 19-year-old, what’s his name?” she told hosts Matt Sekeres and Blake Price. McCann and Virtanen were the only two 19-year-olds on the team at the time.

McCann opened up about his time in Vancouver during a 42-minute interview with former NHLer Luke Gazdic on the Mitts Off podcast, and it sounds like he may have been misunderstood.

While the now 27-year-old spoke highly of the Sedins, Alex Edler, and Alex Burrows, he was shy and “afraid” in his rookie year.

“The atmosphere was definitely very stressful. I’m a young kid, 19 years old, trying to find my way in the NHL. Having the Sedins there, they were great guys, easy to talk to, very quiet,” McCann said.

“I was afraid. I was terrified even to talk to them. Myself, personally, I don’t want to step on toes, you know what I mean?”

McCann scored 18 points (9-9-18) in 69 games as a rookie, and though he showed promise, it took a few years before he developed into the star he has become with the Seattle Kraken. He’s a top-line centre now, having scored 40 goals and 70 points last season, building on the 27-goal, 50-point campaign he had in 2021-22.

It’s clear now that McCann was rushed into NHL action before he was ready.

“I personally think that I could have used a year in the AHL. I really do. Mentally, I think it would have helped me. Physically, it would have helped me. I was 172 pounds playing in the NHL as a 19-year-old. You get tossed around.”

Jared McCann opened up on his time in Vancouver, via @lukegazdic's podcast:

"I could've used a year in the AHL…I think they did give up on me early, I really do. Mentally, it affected me a lot. [I] was in a dark place."

McCann also touched on Pedan calling him out. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/9ODDvw4yw4

— Grady Sas (@GradySas) July 6, 2023

While Benning wanted to add Gudbranson, who he felt was a top-four defenceman that would help fast-track the team’s ill-fated rebuild plan, giving up on a young player like McCann was a bold move.

“I think they did give up on me early. I really do,” McCann said. “Mentally, it affected me a lot. I was in a dark place. As a young player, you just want to play and get an opportunity to play in the NHL. It’s a dream. To get traded after your first year of getting a decent opportunity, it was tough.”

When pressed about Pedan’s “lonely star” comments by Gadzic, McCann explained that he was a scared and nervous teenager that was afraid to say or do the wrong thing.

“When I was in Vancouver, like I said before, I was 19 years old and just scared. Didn’t want to step on toes, didn’t want to talk to anybody because I was nervous. It’s not that I’m trying to make myself better than anybody else. I don’t have anything to say. If you want to come up and talk to me, we can have a conversation for sure. As a young player, I’m still trying to get to know everybody and figure out where my place is. That’s how it was.”

Rumours of a bad attitude affected McCann.

“Maybe [Pedan’s comments were] taken in the wrong context, I’m not sure. Mentally, tried not to focus on it too much, but obviously, it did affect me a little bit because I was asked about it in the media quite a few times. I’ve had to defend myself quite a few times, but I’m really just quiet when it comes to that stuff, especially as a 19-year-old.”

Expanding on the dark place he found himself, McCann said he was “just miserable” to his family and friends.

“I didn’t want to talk to anybody. It was more of just kind of isolating myself and trying to hide from the world. That kind of thing. Because you don’t want to get pointed out, you just want to kind of hide.”

McCann scored 53 points in 143 games with the Florida Panthers over the next three seasons before being traded to the Penguins.

Veteran leaders in Pittsburgh helped McCann, he said, by just talking to him about things not related to hockey. His production improved with the Penguins too, as he notched 84 points in 141 games over a span of three seasons.