Mace’o Phillips was the talk of WinSport Friday morning.
The 6’6” blueliner put his stamp on the Snowy Cup with a spin-o-rama shootout goal in the first half, before drawing more ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aahs’ with a one-handed, backhand chip shot in period two.
Two confident moves. Two dazzling displays of skill.
And both left Flames General Manager Craig Conroy yearning for more.
“I was sitting there, my mouth was wide open,” Conroy said Friday following the 3-on-3 scrimmage. “I’m like ‘OK! Now we expect more!’
“He put himself on the map in the shootout. We’ll be seeing some of that in Medicine Hat this year.”
Quite the endorsement. A stamp of approval for Phillips, who probably would have had to summon Rand McNally to determine just where Medicine Hat was on his geographical canvas.
But this winter, that’s where Phillips will play. And it just so happened that Tigers GM and Head Coach Willie Desjardins was in attendance Friday, too, to see what his new defenceman was all about.
“That is the plan. I will be there next year,” said Phillips, who skated for the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers in 2025-26. “For me, it'll be a new league, new players, new coaching obviously, with Coach Willie there. I'm absolutely thrilled for it.
“Obviously, they have the Ruck boys (Liam and Markus, drafted this June by the Pittsburgh Penguins) coming back and then I know a couple other guys who played there, they all just absolutely love it. And I think with Willie, his NHL experience that he has and the way that they’ve developed their defencemen, I think that was huge for me.”
In addition to his frame - and his hands - the Wayzata, Minn. product will bring a bit of truculence to Desjardins’ crew, a Tigers group that’s won six playoff series and a WHL crown in the past two seasons. Phillips’ 187 penalty minutes were third-most in the USHL last season.
But as evidenced in a viral clip this past winter, Phillips gets just as amped when his teammates shed the mitts, too. In November, his Slovak goaltender Leo Henriquez got into it at centre ice with an opponent and in the video, Phillips is seen excitedly leaping through the frame once Henriquez got the takedown.
“That’s something you don't see every night,” Phillips chuckled. “I was absolutely 110% juiced for that. That was unbelievable.
“Leo was phenomenal for us all year and yeah, I mean, he just got drafted to Boston (in the sixth round), so I sent him a text and I'm so happy for him. He did a lot for us, especially dropping the gloves.”
In the USHL, Phillips got a first-hand look at two of the Flames newest draftees, too. Both Jack Hextall and Tobias Trejbal were with Phillips on Team McDonald at the Snowy Cup last week, but the duo were Gamblers foes during the winter as members of the Youngstown Phantoms.
“Hextall, he has really good vision, good playmaking,” Phillips said of his new Flames teammate. “So yeah, don't puck watch on him.
“Trejbal, I think he played a couple times when he played them. He's obviously very good and I think he stood on his head the first time we played him.”
In Medicine Hat, Phillips will be counted on to be very good, himself. The towering defencemen wore an ‘A’ with the Gamblers a season ago, and at 19, he’ll step into a Tigers roster as one of the team’s elder statesmen on the back end.
His playing style suits the rough and tumble Central Division. But on his travels across the WHL this winter, Phillips might just allow himself to dream a bit, too.
He’ll play the odd game - as a guest - during the Scotiabank Saddledome’s farewell season. But those games, those moments, might just offer Phillips a glimpse into what lies ahead.
“We play the Hitmen, I think, eight times,” said Phillips, adding the three-hour drive between Calgary and Medicine Hat might afford him some extra viewings from Flames management. “That'll be really fun kind of playing in the ‘Dome as a visitor.
“Hopefully it'll be pretty rowdy in there.”
