Sometimes even fighters have to ask for help.
Calling Michael McCarron a fighter has very little to do with the fact his job occasionally calls for him to drop his gloves and trade punches with some of the National Hockey League’s roughest and toughest and more to do with what he has fought to get to where he is today and continues to fight going forward.
McCarron is a hulking physical presence, listed at 6-foot-6, 232 pounds not on skates, by far the biggest player on the Nashville Predators’ roster. Off the rink, his warm smile and gregarious personality immediately puts anyone who speaks with him at ease.
But by McCarron’s admission, a third aspect to his personality threatened both his career on the ice and quality of life off it. In what players, coaches, family and friends have come to expect from McCarron, he chose to deal with it head on.
On Dec. 12, 2022, it was announced McCarron had entered the league’s players assistance program, a joint venture with the NHL Players’ Association. The program was set up to help players with any number of issues they may be experiencing. Players who enter the program continue to receive their salaries when they are in the program and need to step away from the game for some time.
“I was going down a little rabbit hole I couldn’t get myself out of,” McCarron says of his substance abuse situation, which he declined to detail other than describing it as emerging from dealing with the difficulties of being a professional athlete. “I tried to stop what I was doing for quite some time. I was doing it on my own because I didn’t want anybody knowing what I was doing.
“It wasn’t the smartest looking back, but you understand why people do that now going through the whole situation. When you have substance abuse problems or mental health issues, sometimes it’s hard to ask for help,” he continues. “Luckily, I have a tight, close family that I finally asked for help because I knew I couldn’t manage it on my own anymore.”
Big and little brother
In separate conversations, both Predators head coach Andrew Brunette and defenseman Jeremy Lauzon independently referred to McCarron as a big brother figure on the team.
“A big brother looks over everybody, helps everybody out,” Brunette says. “He’s a big-hearted guy that cares for everybody. You can’t have too many of those guys.”
Somewhat ironically, McCarron grew up the youngest of three children of mother Nancy and father Dave. McCarron is the “little” brother of older siblings Laura and John.
“I’ve always played the same way really,” McCarron says. “I have a protective personality, I guess. I’m definitely vocal. Anything I can do to help lighten the mood. Sometimes, it’s pretty hard, this league.”
McCarron and his wife Olivia married last summer. His eyes lights up and his voice cracks a little when trying to put into words how much she means to him and how much she’s helped him in their time together.
“We’ve been together for 10 years,” he says. “She knows me like the back of her hand.”
He says he realizes how fortunate he is to have such strong support systems in place, both personally with his family and professionally with his teammates and the entire Predators organization.
“I really am happy for him because his life is on track,” first-year Predators general manager Barry Trotz says. “He has a wife who loves him. He’s playing with teammates that love him. The coach loves him. The GM loves him. The fans love him, and he’s in a great city where he can flourish.”
McCarron was cleared by the program administrators to return to action after a little more than a month. The Predators wanted him to get back into game shape by spending some time with their American Hockey League affiliate the Milwaukee Admirals. McCarron returned to Nashville in early March and played his first NHL game in nearly three months March 8, 2023.
“I finally found some help,” McCarron says. “The NHL program obviously was a huge help to me. That group, I don’t want to necessarily say they saved my life, but to a certain extent, they did. I survived.”
Person before player
During his time as a coach and now in his role as general manager, Trotz has prioritized the person before the hockey player. In 2002, the Predators acquired defenseman Jere Karalahti in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings. Karalahti had a documented history of substance abuse.
In his first news conference discussing the trade, Trotz went to bat for a player he’d not yet met, stating he had a relative who dealt with substance abuse issues for many years. Unprompted, he then mentioned who the person was.
“You can’t be a good player or have a good life if you don’t have everything in order,” Trotz says. “If you have emotional problems, substance abuse problems, mental health problems, those have to be sorted out before you can perform at your top level.”
While the Karalahti trade did not work out for the Predators, Trotz points to former Predator Jordin Tootoo as a success story.
“I’m proud of Jordin Tootoo more post-career than what he did during his career,” Trotz says. “He’s been sober and clean for almost 12 years now. To me, if he was on the same path and he never got it corrected and we didn’t step in and try to help him correct it, to this day, I don’t think Jordin would be on the planet earth.
“I think something bad would have happened. For us to stand by and let it happen just because he was a popular hockey player would have been bad on us.”
Know your role
After last season, McCarron signed a new one-year contract to remain in Nashville for this season. While the deal was for the league minimum salary, it was the first one-way NHL contract (meaning he was paid the same regardless of whether he was playing with the big club or the Admirals) in his 10-year professional career.
McCarron was nicknamed Big Sexy by his teammates, a moniker that has caught on with Predators fans.
On the ice, McCarron’s role is often anything but sexy. As a fourth-line center, the minutes played usually aren’t big, and neither are the goal and assist numbers compared to top-six forwards. But it’s a role vital to a team’s success. Fourth liners are asked to kill penalties, provide the team energy, shut down the opposition while protecting a lead late in the game and, yes, even get involved with the rough stuff if the situation calls for it.
“That’s the thing that may be sometimes hard to recognize for people on the outside, but I think as a player you have guys like that on your team standing up for you, that’s something you appreciate,” Predators captain Roman Josi says. “They are putting their bodies on the line to protect guys. It’s not an easy job, it’s really hard.”
This season, Brunette has rewarded McCarron’s success and productivity with increased ice time and increased responsibility. He’s averaging 12 minutes of ice time per game, 1:30 more than 2022-23. McCarron has responded by already setting career highs in goals, assists and points.
“He’s always on the bench screaming to get the energy going,” Lauzon says. “He’s a really good player. I don’t think he gets the credit he’s due. He’s not on the scoresheet every night, but I think he’s a really important part of the team.”
A lot of the credit for McCarron’s success is having mental clarity and consistently feeling the same each day, which hasn’t always been the case. Hockey seasons are demanding both physically and mentally.
“You don’t think the same when your head’s not right,” he says. “I’m having the breakout year of my career and I think a big part of it is because of that.”
Here for the long haul
The Predators announced Feb. 16 they had signed McCarron to a two-year, $1.8 million contract that will begin in the 2024-25 season. A one-way contract, check. A multiyear deal, check. Higher than league-minimum salary, check. All hard-earned and all well-deserved.
The timing of the announcement put McCarron in a tough spot, as it came about 12 hours after the Dallas Stars handed the Predators a 9-2 shellacking at home. Ever the team guy, McCarron was reluctant to celebrate his new deal when asked about it the next day at practice.
A few days and, more importantly, a bounce-back win over the St. Louis Blues later, McCarron discussed what the new contract meant for him in a chat outside the team’s hotel in Las Vegas.
“It feels good,” McCarron says. “It feels great for the family. For me, personally, it’s a step in the right direction. I could have quit a lot of times throughout my career. I’ve faced a lot of adversity, up and down, up and down, in the minors, in the NHL, back and forth.”
Most of McCarron’s teammates were unaware of his new contract the day he signed. Once Josi heard, he immediately walked across the locker room at the team’s practice facility to give him a congratulatory hug.
McCarron was a first-round pick (25th overall) of the Montreal Canadiens in 2013. Even though the draft is an inexact science, expectations are high for first-round picks, even late ones. But when the first-round pick is of the Canadiens, many eyes are on the player, including those of the organization, the media and the fans alike of le bleu, blanc, et rouge.
McCarron played 69 NHL games with the Canadiens during parts of three seasons. He spent most of his time in the Canadiens organization with the team’s AHL affiliates in St. John’s then Laval.
In early January 2020, the Predators acquired McCarron in a trade with Montreal. Nashville thought a change of scenery for McCarron might be beneficial.
The admiration Predators players have for McCarron is returned equally.
“I love my teammates,” he says. “I love playing with them.”
For most of the season, McCarron has played on a line with Cole Smith, especially recently. Smith signed a new, two-year contract a few weeks before McCarron.
“He’s a big, goofy guy,” Smith says. “He’s loved in the locker room. It means a lot for him to be back in the locker room for two more years. He and I are really close, good friends.”
Team above all
Smith and McCarron were two of several Predators forwards who entered the season with expiring contracts. With Brunette in his first season as Nashville’s coach and Trotz serving in his first season as general manager, those playing for new contracts knew nothing was guaranteed and remaining with the Predators was something that had to be earned. Smith and McCarron both earned the privilege.
“It’s nice when you get that in the back of your head that you don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Smith says. “When you’re in a contract year, it’s always right there.”
Illustrating what a good teammate McCarron is, during the game in Vegas, he threw a puck toward the Golden Knights net that went in after tipping off Smith’s stick as he was falling to the ice after getting tangled up with a Vegas defenseman.
After celebrating the goal with his teammates, McCarron skated over to the officials to let them know it was Smith’s goal. The NHL’s off-ice officials would have discovered it if the on-ice ones hadn’t, but McCarron made sure a second look at the goal wasn’t necessary. He was just as happy to chalk another one up in the assist column though.
While McCarron is happy to have the new contract signed, he’s already looking beyond the conclusion of the 2025-26 season.
“I don’t think this will be my last one, either,” he says with a smile.
His GM agrees.
“I said to him, ‘If we do a two-year deal, and you keep growing, I’m not going to let you go and you are going to make your money on the back end,’” Trotz says.
No one who knows McCarron and the effect he can have on a team would think differently either.