Jay McKee spent years trying to climb as fast as he could. Now, after 12 seasons of learning the hard way in junior hockey, he says he finally understands the value of the slower route.
That shift in perspective comes as the former Sabres defenseman gets his first chance to coach in pro hockey on his own terms. In May, the New York Islanders hired McKee to lead the Hamilton Hammers, their new AHL affiliate, giving the 48-year-old a long-awaited shot at the next level.
McKee’s path to this point has been anything but linear. He had a brief stop in the pro ranks early in his coaching career with the Rochester Americans in 2011-12, but that one-season stint did not stick. A year and a half after his playing career ended, he was still figuring out how to be a coach, and the setup in Rochester never felt right.
“I didn’t enjoy the experience as much as I thought I would,” he told the Times Herald. “Part of me was still in player mode. I think there was things that I had to learn at the time developing as a coach.”
Back then, McKee was working under Ron Rolston with assistant Chadd Cassidy, and he was assigned to coach the forwards instead of the defense. He said the “dynamic didn’t work.” When the contract ended, he stepped away and took time to rethink the whole thing.
That reset changed everything.
McKee later spent two seasons as a player-coach with the Dundas Real McCoys, winning the Allan Cup in 2013-14, and then moved into junior hockey with the Erie Otters. That next stop, working with a team led by Connor McDavid, helped him see the job differently. He realized the OHL could be more than a place to pass through - it could be the place to build real coaching muscle.
“I just felt like I learned so much as a coach, and I flipped my mindset of getting to the top level as quick as possible to growing an appreciation for how much you learn as a coach, and I wanted to play the long game,” he said. “Instead of jumping in, I wanted to feel more than prepared, not just I think I’m ready, before I made the next jump.”
That approach carried him through a successful run in the OHL. McKee took over the Kitchener Rangers in 2016-17, then won a championship in his first season with the Hamilton Bulldogs in 2021-22. When the franchise moved to Brantford in 2023, he went with it, and last season the Bulldogs reached the Eastern Conference final before falling to the Barrie Colts in seven games.
Over nearly a decade as a head coach, McKee said his teams reached the postseason eight times. That stretch, he said, gave him the kind of education he couldn’t have gotten any other way.
“I just grew a great appreciation for how much you learn,” he said of the OHL. “I really feel you have to go through great experiences and then challenging experiences, and that’s where you learn.
“And when you face that same challenging experience, you have the previous challenges, you’ve learned from them and you can adjust quicker. You become a more efficient coach.”
For McKee, the move to Hamilton also carries a personal connection to the game he grew up around in Buffalo. He knows he was fortunate to play for Lindy Ruff for much of his career, and that relationship still matters to him. Ruff is now in his second stint with the Sabres, and McKee said he has picked up drills and concepts from him over the years, including the “Lindy One Touch” and “Lindy 2B2” drills.
He also admitted he felt a wave of nostalgia while watching Ruff’s Sabres break their 14-year playoff drought and capture the Atlantic Division last season.
“You could see the energy in the city,” he said. “… It brought back kind of those great feelings and emotions that we all went through as players. Even seeing those highlight- reel films from the past and the things they were doing this season, it just kind of brought you back as a player and reminded us all (that) was the time of our lives back in the years of 2005 and 2006.”
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