Kirk MacDonald, son of the late University of Victoria athletic director Wayne MacDonald, had access to some of the best minds in sports as he grew up. A particular mentor was former long-serving UVic Vikes soccer coach Bruce Wilson, who captained Canada in the 1986 World Cup.
Although he was a hockey and lacrosse player, Kirk MacDonald absorbed all the lessons he could from any sport, and it has held the former Victoria Salsa (now Grizzlies) BCHL junior in good stead in being named new head coach of NHL Pittsburgh’s main affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre Penguins of the American Hockey League. It is the latest move up in a coaching career that included eight seasons in the pro ECHL with the Reading Royals and the last two in the junior USHL with the Dubuque Fighting Saints, a league MacDonald says is now comparable to the major-junior Canadian Hockey League.
“My dad spent his life in sports and taught me that it all starts with how you treat people,” said MacDonald.
“If you treat people the right way, people want to work hard because of it.”
That has led to another guiding philosophy: “I have no time for guys who don’t put in the work,” added MacDonald, who cited his former Victoria lacrosse coaches Pete Rushton and Jim Gow as key early influences.
When you have survived testicular cancer, after just graduating junior with the Salsa, it gives you a certain perspective about battling and persistence.
MacDonald, a graduate of the Racquet Club of Victoria and a key forward on the 2001 BCHL-champion Salsa team before playing NCAA Div. 1 at R.P.I. and 272 games in the AHL, has certainly put in his share of toil with Reading of the ECHL as assistant coach, head coach and director of hockey operations before guiding Dubuque to the best record in the USHL East Division last season at 41-13-8.
It is the sort of path taken by Spencer Carbery of Victoria, the former ECHL and AHL mentor who is now head coach of the Washington Capitals of the NHL, and a former teammate of MacDonald’s on the Peninsula Panthers of the VIJHL.
“Spencer has been great to call for advice,” said MacDonald, 40.
That, of course, leads to the inevitable talk of the possible eventuality of a third Island-bred coach in the NHL to join Carbery and Campbell River’s Rod Brind’Amour of the Carolina Hurricanes.
A person can only do the job directly ahead of them, not some mythical future role, said MacDonald: “My job is to develop players for Pittsburgh that align with what they do, and to win games in Wilkes-Barre.”
Do that and the rest will take care of itself.
