Penguins defensive prospect Ryan McCleary offers different game from his father

Pittsburgh Penguins defensive prospect Ryan McCleary looks up to his father.

And former NHL forward Trent McCleary does the same with his son.

Literally.

At 6-foot-2, Ryan has something of a vertical advantage over Trent.

“I barely scraped six feet,” said Trent McCleary, who suggested that extra height came from his wife, Tammy. “And he’s (6-foot-2). He still has a baby face, so there might still be some room to grow.”

Ryan McCleary still is taking the first steps in his development as a would-be NHLer. A seventh-round pick (No. 194 overall) in 2021, McCleary, who turned 19 on Sept. 9, is attending the Penguins’ ongoing rookie camp. And while plenty of refinement is still required for him to reach the NHL, he appears to have the base elements to reach this level.

In 63 games with the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League last season, McCleary put up 30 points (six goals, 24 assists).

“He always jumped in the rush, but his timing wasn’t great,” said former Penguins coach Mike Johnston, now the Winterhawks’ coach. “But I thought last year he was really effective, and his point totals reflected that. With minimal power-play time, he was able to get the points that he got last year and was effective at getting in the rush and sliding in the offensive zone with some pretty good timing. He has some offensive upside. The key thing for him to develop into a pro player at that level is certainly going to be strength and power over this next year because he’s gotten better. He’s starting to fill out, but he still has a ways to go.”

A right-handed shot listed at 180 pounds, McCleary has spent the past two seasons in Portland playing for Johnston, who long has valued aggressive defensemen.

“He wants an offensive defenseman type of mindset,” Ryan McCleary said. “Always try to jump up in the play and be that fourth guy in the rush.”

“(McCleary is) a big lanky guy who can jump up into the play and make good plays,” Johnston said. “The one thing about making plays as a defenseman, sometimes you’re going to make a mistake. Things aren’t going to happen the way you wanted them to. But he’s able to recover. He has enough confidence to evaluate what he’s done and then make a play the next time and not be afraid or intimidated by the moment.”

The style — and the overall sport — Ryan McCleary plays is eons different from what his dad saw two-plus decades ago.

Undrafted, Trent McCleary carved out a 192-game career with the Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a hard-scrabble, rambunctious agitator.

“He was a very hard-nosed kind of (agitating) type of player,” Ryan McCleary said. “He kind of hit a lot of guys. It’s a different (game) these days, but I try to bring some of those aspects he had into my game.”

Trent McCleary suggests there’s a larger gulf between their styles.

“I’m glad he plays a different game,” the elder McCleary said. “Because the game that I played is pretty much the way of the dodo bird. I was one of those antagonists and (expletive) disturbers and guys like that. You can’t do that (today). He’s way more of a skilled type of player. He moves the puck. He’s got much better size than I ever did. So it’s kind of night and day.”

Johnston suggests a far more intangible similarity exists.

“Hockey sense for sure,” the coach said. “Ryan’s a really smart player. When his dad was playing, I thought Trent was very, very similar. A high hockey sense, high IQ on the ice. That’s where Ryan separated himself from players when he was younger. He’s really starting to show, at (the junior) level, he can play with some physical compete to his game, which he’s also added within the last year or two.”

Trent McCleary’s career was halted prematurely at the age of 27 because of a gruesome injury in January 2000 while he was skating for the Canadiens.

During a home game, he slid down to block a one-timer by Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Chris Therrien and was struck in the throat by the puck. In the process, he suffered a fractured larynx.

McCleary was rushed to Montreal General Hospital for a life-saving tracheotomy while he was still wearing much of his equipment, including his skates.

He offers a peculiar description of the mishap that could have been cataclysmic.

“It’s the best career-ending injury a guy can have,” said Trent McCleary, who turned 50 on Sept. 8. “I can pretty much do anything, other than play anaerobic sports. I lost about 25 to 30% of my airway. But you don’t need your full airway unless you’re doing extreme sports. I feel bad for these guys with concussions or bad knees or shoulders or backs because those are lifelong. I was fortunate.”

That fortune has manifested into two of his children playing hockey at an advanced level. In addition to Ryan, sister Maddy is a right winger with St. Mary’s University in Nova Scotia.

“I’ve got a child playing in Portland, Ore., and I’ve got my daughter playing in Halifax, N.S,” said Trent McCleary, who now works as a financial advisor in his hometown of Swift Current, Saskatchewan. “Somebody might read it that they don’t like each other because you couldn’t possibly get farther away in Canada. But it’s just the way it works out. It’s great. You want to see your kids excited, doing what they want to do and this is what they want to do.”

Given what happened to Trent McCleary 22 years ago, it’s fair to wonder if he harbored any reservations over allowing his children to play a sport that nearly cost him everything.

His answer is succinct.

“Zero,” Trent McCleary said. “What happened to me was an absolute freak, freak event. I always played ‘live by the sword, die by the sword.’ I lived by it and my career ended because of it, doing whatever I had to, blocking shots and things like that. You can’t live your life hoping something doesn’t happen. Myself and my wife have no qualms over letting our kids play because it’s something they want to do. You can’t be fearful. He plays a fairly robust game, but not like I did back in the day. He finishes his checks and things like that.

“What will happen will happen. You can’t try to protect them that much. As they were leaving the house a couple of weeks ago, both of them were smiling. They’re going to do what they want to do. And that’s all you can ask for.”

Note: According to the team’s website, the Penguins defeated the Boston Bruins, 6-4, in a rookie tournament game at the LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo on Saturday.