Jared McCann has spent a good chunk of his summer in wedding mode, and the Seattle Kraken forward says that has come with one clear sacrifice: less time on the golf course.
“I’m getting to that age now where everybody’s getting married,” McCann said on Toronto’s TSN 1050 radio. He’s been to “a lot of weddings.
Philipp Grubauer got married in Italy. My wife and I went down there for that.
A lot of German beer. Good stuff.”
The tradeoff, at least for McCann, has been simple. “I haven’t been able to play much this summer.”
That’s not exactly the ideal setup for a 30-year-old who just marked his own second wedding anniversary to wife Valerie.
McCann did get back around the game this week in Toronto, where he took part in the Zach Hyman Celebrity Classic, a charity event that supports children’s causes. The field included some familiar names from the Edmonton Oilers side of the NHL world, including Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
McDavid has taken his share of playful shots at Hyman’s golf game over the years, and Hyman returned the favor with a joke of his own. “We joke with him like, ‘Why do you even put on a golf tournament?’
He doesn’t play golf. He should put on a pickleball tournament.”
Even with the chirping, Hyman’s annual event has been a serious success. Since 2018, it has raised more than $3 million.
McCann’s trip back to Toronto also brought up memories of one of the strangest stretches of his career: the rapid-fire 72 hours in the summer of 2021 when he was a Maple Leaf, briefly, before ending up with the Kraken.
“It happened really quickly. I was at a buddy’s cottage when I got the phone call from the GM in Pittsburgh that I’d been traded to Toronto.
“(Maple Leafs GM) Kyle (Dubas) called me 15 minutes later. Just told me, ‘We’re going to figure out the expansion draft.
We don’t know what’s going to happen yet.’ I went to Seattle pretty quickly.”
McCann said he’s still waiting to see his Maple Leafs jersey arrive.
“It was a roller coaster (of emotions). My wife and I didn’t know where we were going to be.
Obviously, Seattle is far from home. I heard from some people I hadn’t heard from in a long time when I got picked up by the Leafs.
I think they were ready to get some tickets.”
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