By the Numbers Prospects: Jared McIsaac

By the Numbers will highlight the on-ice accomplishments in the 2019-20 season for the Detroit Red Wings' prospects. Twice a week during the offseason, By the Numbers will profile a different player in the system, focusing on his statistical highs. This week we focus on defenseman Jared McIsaac.

If there's a player that really could have used a long playoff run, it was defenseman Jared McIsaac.

McIsaac, the Red Wings' second-round pick, 36th overall, in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, played through a shoulder injury last season and helped the Halifax Mooseheads to the finals of the Memorial Cup tournament.

But the injury, which occurred during his first development camp with the Wings, remained an issue and McIsaac and the Wings finally decided he should have surgery to repair his shoulder capsule in Detroit on June 6, 2019.

The estimated 5-6 month recovery time meant McIsaac could not participate in development camp last summer and would have to fight to get back in time to earn a spot on Team Canada and play in the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship in Czech Republic.

McIsaac spent a lot of his rehabilitation time in Detroit, working with Wings coaches and trainers to regain strength and add some skills to his arsenal.

Things worked out well for McIsaac in terms of returning to the ice, which he did on Nov. 30, and playing in the world junior championship.

With the benefit of the experience he gained playing in the tournament the previous year, McIsaac was able to help Team Canada earn the gold medal.

When he returned to Canada, McIsaac found himself on the move, heading to the Moncton Wildcats in a trade.

When the 2020 President Cup Playoffs were canceled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic on March 23, the Wildcats were second in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with 101 points to the Sherbrooke Phoenix's 106 points and had already clinched the Maritimes Division and a playoff berth.

Now like the rest of the hockey world, McIsaac is home working to stay in shape and waiting to see what his future holds.

28 - Because of the surgery, McIsaac was limited to just 28 games this past season in the QMJHL.

3 - McIsaac played just three games for the Halifax Mooseheads before heading off to the world junior championship.

25 - McIsaac played in 25 games for the Moncton Wildcats after his trade from the Mooseheads.

4 - In his 25 games with Moncton, McIsaac had four goals. The first came in his second game with the Wildcats, a 4-3 win over the Saint John Sea Dogs. His second came Feb. 23 in a 5-1 win over his former team, the Mooseheads. McIsaac had two goals, including the game-winner in a 3-1 victory over the Rimouski Océanic. During the world junior championship, McIsaac was second among Team Canada's defensemen in points with four. Calen Addison led the Canadian blueliners with nine (1-8-9).

15 - McIsaac had 15 assists, two in three games for the Mooseheads and 13 in 25 for the Wildcats.

2 - McIsaac had two two-assist games, the first coming Feb. 12 in a 10-2 shellacking of the Saint John Sea Dogs and the other on March 8 in a 4-0 shutout of the Drummondville Voltigeurs.

35 - Between both teams, McIsaac set a new career best at plus-35. He was plus-2 in three games with Halifax and plus-33 in 25 games with Moncton. The previous season, McIsaac was plus-33 in 53 games with the Mooseheads.

7 - McIsaac played in all seven games for Team Canada during their gold-medal run at the 2020 World Junior Championship in Czech Republic.

1 - During the world junior championship, McIsaac scored one goal, a third-period tally in a 7-2 victory over the host team, Czech Republic on Dec. 31, 2019. Fellow Wings prospect Joe Veleno, who scored the game's first goal, had the second assist on McIsaac's goal.

Quotable: "It's too bad their season ended because Moncton was one of the better teams in all the CHL. They had a good chance of winning the whole tournament, or essentially the whole national championship there, which is their Memorial Cup. You gotta give Mac credit, he put a tremendous amount of work in in the first half of the season to come out and to get himself ready to make that world junior team. Fortunately he did, he made it, they went over there and they won. I think it was a great experience for him. Granted, he'll be the first one to admit, once he came back from world juniors, it took him a little bit of time to get up to speed, which is understandable having been away from the game for that long. But the last 10 games or so, he really started to play the type of hockey that he's capable of. He was counted upon in huge minutes there, one of the best teams in Canada, played in all situations, played against the other teams' top lines, PKs, power plays. He's coming along nicely. He's a guy that we'll have in Grand Rapids next year." -- Shawn Horcoff, Red Wings director of player development and assistant director of player personnel