The Kraken are optimistic that they know what they’re getting with forward Bobby McMann, who just signed a six-year, $34.5-million deal with the club. But it’s always nice to get some reassurance from the horse’s mouth.
In our previous reports on his acquisition and presence in Seattle, we pointed out some of his perceived shortcomings, based on conversations with Toronto media — they can be a bit hard on guys — and NHL management types.
So I asked him about the pro’s and con’s in his game, not so much in Seattle where he only played 18 matches for the Kraken, but more so in his 200-game run with the Maple Leafs that saw him show up big time for stretches, and then apparently disappear for others.
“There’s many parts of my game that I’m trying to work on,” he said. “I’m trying to improve my east-west game, improve things like how I enter the offensive zone, how can I create more, I always want to create more offense, how do I do things like attacking the middle more, to the net more. Obviously you have to do that at the right times, it’s a momentum driven game and you have to be smart with those things, when you pick your spots or get to the middle.”
And then the music to Kraken head coach Lane Lambert’s ears …
“I want to continue to work at the defensive side of the game, that’s huge obviously. Lane and the organization puts a huge emphasis on the defensive side of it, but I also feel I have strong attributes that complement the team. I like to shoot the puck, I feel like I played with guys that were great passers, able to find me. I’m a shoot first kind of guy, I like to get it off as soon as possible, so that’s something I can add to the team, and I think I can add speed to the team wherever I am.”
Circumstances can dictate performance, obviously. In Toronto it took awhile for him to crack a strong forward line-up, and the pressure is unlike where it might be anywhere else. Definitely heaps more than what he’ll find with the Kraken.
Coaching also plays a part, but McMann suggested he got along great with Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube, an old school guy to say the least, who’s since been fired in Toronto.
“I think I got along with “Chief” quite well, he gave me good opportunity, he believed in me, put me in key situations which I always appreciate,” McMann said of Berube, who won a Stanley Cup as the head coach of the St. Louis Blues in 2019. “I think him and Lane have a fair amount of similarities, they obviously coached together when I was there, I had Lane as an assistant. They have similar tendencies in the way that they see the game, maybe systematically, they have a very, somewhat of a different approach in how they address the team, keep a pulse on the team, try to drive the momentum of the team.
“I think it was great to see him (Lane) as a head, I didn’t know what to expect, I saw him as an assistant in Toronto, and he was able to command that dressing room, understand what was important, and what the guys needed in each scenario.”
The table is set.
As we’ve also pointed out previously, it’s quite possible that McMann has turned a corner. Over the course of last season in his time with the Maple Leafs and Kraken, he potted a total of 29 goals. That’s as impressive as is the fact his numbers have improved each season.
The 30-year-old late bloomer, who played his first NHL game at age 26, McMann now gets a chance to put his first big money where his mouth is.
Earlier Kraken:
— New Kraken Mackie Samoskevich In His Own Words
