DeBoer, Prospects React to McKee’s First Development Camp

New York Islanders’ Development Camp offered the front office a chance to meet and evaluate players in a controlled setting while also setting expectations for what it means to be an Islander. 

This season, it also offered a first look at one of the men spearheading the development of the team’s next generation.

Jay McKee, who was hired as the first Head Coach of the Hamilton Hammers following Rocky Thompson’s promotion to Pete DeBoer’s staff, oversaw camp and introduced prospects to the way the team intends to play. For DeBoer, it was an impressive introduction to a coach he had been following since McKee’s junior hockey coaching career.

“I’ve been following his coaching and playing journey, and seen how much success he’s had in the OHL,” DeBoer said. “I was really impressed with what I saw this week and what he did.”

McKee is able to relate to prospects at different stages of development. He has the perspective of being a first-round pick - selected 14th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1995 Draft and how to navigate bouncing between the AHL and NHL for three seasons. McKee eventually earned a full-time NHL role in 1998 and played over 800 NHL games.

He began his OHL coaching career in 2014-15 with the Erie Otters before a head coaching stint with the Kitchener Rangers from 2016-20. He took over the Hamilton/Brantford Bulldogs in 2021-22 and found immediate success, winning the OHL’s J. Ross Robertson Cup in his first season.

While McKee is new to the organization, he’s very familiar to three Islanders prospects – Vladimir Dravecky, Gabriel Frasca and Layne Gallacher. Dravecky, the Islanders 2026 fifth-rounder (141st overall), Gallacher and Frasca played under McKee in 2025-26.

Frasca credited McKee with helping him think the game at a higher level.

“He was much different from other coaches in the sense that he’s more of a teacher,” Frasca said. “I learned so much from him, and he really helped with my development.”

For Gallacher, McKee was his first experience with junior hockey and helped him manage the jump from his youth program.

“I came to him as a 16-year-old and he gave me a lot of opportunity,” Gallacher said. “He taught me how important it is to play both sides of the ice and how to adjust to a professional setting.”

McKee’s teams played a suffocating style of hockey that opposing teams dreaded facing, which 2025 first-rounder (17th overall) Kashawn Aitcheson could attest to. While his Barrie Colts squad eliminated the Bulldogs in this year’s OHL Playoffs – a fact McKee joked he “hates him for” – Aitcheson acknowledged how difficult that series was.

“He always had a top team, and that wasn’t by mistake,” Aitcheson said. “Their systems were unreal. They were creative and a super hard team to play against. It was always a challenge to take two points from them.”

After adjusting to McKee’s practice regimen and being on the same side, Aitcheson’s respect for the 48-year-old coach has only grown.

“The conversations throughout the week with him and his staff have been great,” Aitcheson said. “They’ve been giving us a ton of information, so it’s now up to us to apply it and be a sponge.”

For his former OHL players, seeing their old bench boss work his way up is a surreal and deserved experience.

“He deserved this, and it’s great to work with him again,” Frasca said. “It’s a lot of similar stuff to what we saw in Brantford.”

This week also gave McKee and DeBoer the opportunity to get the NHL and AHL staff together and “talk shop” about their plans for the season. The week left DeBoer excited not only about the prospects, but also about knowing they’re in great hands.

“I think we have a tremendous AHL staff led by Jay,” DeBoer said. “They did a great job this week and I’m excited for the bond we’ve built between both of our staffs."