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Getting to Know U-tah: Forward Jack McBain
Through training camp, ALLCITY Network will publish profiles of players and staff on the Utah Hockey Club’s hockey operations side to help Utah fans get to know their new team before the first puck drop on Oct. 8 against the Chicago Blackhawks at Delta Center.
Jack McBain
Position: Forward
Height/weight: 6-4, 219
Shoots: Left
Age: 24
2023-24 stats: 67 games, 8 goals, 26 points
Career stats: 159 games, 22 goals, 55 points
Contract status: Signed through 2024-25 (AAV: $1,599,999)
Agent: Patrick Morris
(Getty Images)
Jack McBain wants everyone to know this: He and Dylan Guenther are paying their water bills these days in their new hometown of Draper, Utah. There will be no more mishaps like late last season when the roommates went more than half a day without running taps or flushable toilets.
Not that they have lived it down.
“His dad’s friend kind of made an April Fool’s joke and sent us like 1,500 bottles of water,” McBain said.
Russ Guenther’s friend — like the Guenthers — also happens to be from Edmonton, so when the team went there last season, he came to the game to play another joke on McBain.
While standing on the glass, he tossed McBain a T-shirt of the same-named Simpsons character — the one Coyotes fans used as a meme whenever McBain did something noteworthy in a game, whether it was a goal, a hit or a fight.
“The character is good so I don’t mind if it sticks around,” McBain said.
McBain is setting the same goal for himself. Entering the final year of a contract that hilariously pays him $1,599,999 (cue Meruelo ownership group jokes), McBain is looking to secure a more permanent place in the Utah Hockey Club’s plans.
He’ll be a restricted free agent this summer and can become an unrestricted free agent in 2027-28. This season is a critical one for McBain’s financial future.
“I think last year I took some big strides in the right direction in kind of becoming a more complete player,” he said. “When you look at my body of work after the first year, I was kind of a guy who was really just trying to make a name for himself and trying to make the team and do whatever I could. That meant taking a more physical approach to the game and it’s something I still take pride in.
“It was a little unfortunate that I got hurt for a bit, but I think other parts of my game kind of grew a lot more around the puck and being more offensive. It’s something I’m still working on and also becoming more consistent.”
Two areas of focus this offseason for McBain were his skating — specifically his starts — and his shot, which he simply wants to utilize more than he did last season when he had just 56 shots on goal in 67 games but scored on 14.3 percent of those shots. Call it the Matias Maccelli approach.
“I put more focus and emphasis on shooting pucks around the net and trying to work on more finishes,” he said. “When I get myself into an area where I can shoot, I need to be taking advantage of that and not looking off that play.
“It’s all situations. In tight is where I’ve found success early on in my career and it’s something I take pride in is being a force down low and around the net and getting goals that way. But I think to be able to expand on that means shooting from everywhere.”
Much of that will be dictated by where he is playing. With Nick Bjugstad slated to miss the start of the regular season with an upper-body injury, McBain could end up at center in a depth chart that also includes Barrett Hayton, Logan Cooley, Kevin Stenlund and maybe Alex Kerfoot.
But when Bjugstad returns, McBain might have an attractive opportunity on the left wing alongside Cooley at center and Guenther on the right side.
“Early on in camp, that’s where I’ve been, but things can change around,” he said. “Wherever they decide to put me or use me, it’s totally fine with me. I think I’m a great centerman and I think my faceoffs are starting to go in the right direction, but I think I’m impactful on the wing as well. I can be used in a lot of different situations.
“Obviously if I’m playing with Logan and Dylan, they’re both very high skill players that generate a lot of offense. They’re two of my close buddies on the team as well. I think I’m a good complement to what they bring to the game. I bring something much different. I can help out a lot and create a lot of space for them on the ice. I obviously don’t play the same style as them, but I think it can kind of go hand in hand and be used effectively.”
Part of McBain’s role on that line — at 6 feet 4, 219 pounds — would be to shelter his teammates with his physical presence, but that’s as far as McBain — or Guenther for that matter — are ready to go when it comes to caretaking. On a team loaded with dogs and more recently, babies, the house that the two are renting is baby-free and pet-free.
Nothing to do but pay the bills.
“It’s probably a good thing at this point that we don’t have anybody to take care of,” McBain said, laughing. “We’ve got enough to worry about.”
(Getty Images)
Related McBain links
Jack McBain’s ceiling with Coyotes may be higher than expected
Jack McBain eyeing immediate opportunity with Coyotes
Top photo of Jack McBain via Getty Images
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