Camp chronicles: McLean's quick ascent lands him on an NHL bench

ST. PAUL -- As approached the large elevator to head up six floors from the Wild dressing room to its practice rink at TRIA Rink on Monday morning, a sudden burst of excitement surged through Brett McLean's body.
McLean, one of head coach Dean Evason's newly minted assistant coaches, has been on staff since he was named to the post in August. He's been in town for the past few weeks preparing for the season.
But there was something about sliding on his skates, throwing on his black, flat-billed Wild cap, grabbing his whistle and heading out to the ice sheet as an NHL assistant coach for the very first time.

"It wasn't nerves, but as I was walking down that hallway to go to the elevator up [to the rink], and I was going upstairs to be an assistant coach at a practice, that was definitely pretty cool," McLean said. "I was just really looking forward to it and to really get going. That was the one time, when I was walking down that hallway ... this has been a few months coming."
More like a few years.
McLean's playing days ended only a few years ago, when he wrapped up a stellar 19-year professional career following the 2016-17 season. His resume is highlighted by the 385 career NHL games he played in with the Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche and Florida Panthers through the 2000s, but he concluded his career in Switzerland and Austria where he had many good seasons between 2009 and 2017.
His next chapter began when he joined Derek Lalonde's coaching staff with the Iowa Wild just a couple of months after retiring as a player.
It didn't take long to figure out that McLean's career arrow was pointing up.
Proof? McLean was promoted to the National Hockey League less than two weeks after his 42nd birthday and just three years after he skated in his final game as a player.
The secret sauce for McLean is his ability to connect with virtually anyone he comes in contact with. Whether it's a player or equipment guy at the rink, or a broadcaster or someone in the marketing department, McLean has a personality that draws you in.
"We have some long rides down in the AHL," said Wild forward Gerry Mayhew, who played for McLean in Iowa each of the past three seasons. "During the night, he'll come back and we'll be playing cards and he'll just sit there and watch with us for a little bit, probably remembering the days when he was doing it. He's got a great vibe and whenever he's at the rink, he's always smiling, always laughing.
"And you can't teach that. You either have that personality or you don't. It's been a joy to play for him the last three years and hopefully I'll have a lot more time with him."
McLean has grown especially fond of central Iowa since joining the club 3 1/2 years ago. His family still lives in West Des Moines, with his wife Brenna, his daughter Darian (13 years old), and sons Nixon (9) and Nash (5) in school there. McLean was preparing to be back with Iowa this season, but with the pandemic delaying the NHL postseason, then with the Wild making changes to its coaching staff, McLean wasn't added to Minnesota's staff until late-August.
That left little time to uproot the family ahead of school.
The good news is, working remotely for much of the fall meant McLean was able to spend several months at home with his wife and kids before transitioning to the Twin Cities more recently, where he's renting for the year by himself.
The plan is to have the whole crew back together this summer.
"Three-and-a-half hour drive, not too bad at all, pending COVID protocols too," McLean said. "But if the protocols call for that, it's easy enough to go down for a visit or have them come up here. It'll be tough now being away from the family, but the excitement of the hockey season will take over that I think."
It'll be an adjustment for sure for the kids not having dad on staff in Iowa.

His son Nixon is the world's biggest Gerry Mayhew fan. He even has a Mayhew Iowa Wild jersey with the stitched name plate and number on the back.
It's entirely possible that both his dad and #GerryTime will be with the big club in Minnesota this season. That could be a good thing for a guy like Mayhew and other younger players who have spent time with him in Iowa in recent seasons.
"Some of the young guys I think feel real comfortable having a coach there who they've been around for awhile," Mayhew said. "He's a great addition to this team, I think."
On the ice, McLean says he's been aided by the fact that he's spent the past few training camps around head coach Dean Evason and assistants Bob Woods and Darby Hendrickson.
Another new coach this season, goalie coach Frederic Chabot, has been a mainstay working with the organization's young goalies the past few years and has been based out of Des Moines.
Evason is someone McLean said he's respected since he got into coaching three years ago, when the former was head coach of one of Iowa's biggest Central Division rivals in the AHL, the Milwaukee Admirals.
"Brett is extremely dialed in. Very intense. Just very detailed person, very detailed coach," Evason said. "He is already communicating and interacting with the guys. Clearly he's got relationships with the guys in Iowa. So I'm sure it's a comfortable setting for him."
With Minnesota, McLean will coach the forward group, a spot he's returning to after coaching the defensemen in Iowa last season. McLean, who was a forward as a player, coached forwards his first two seasons in Iowa.
Iowa head coach Tim Army thought so highly of McLean that he wanted him to see the game from a different perspective.
"As the head coach in Des Moines, I want everybody to continue to grow," Army told Wild.com in August of 2019. "Not just players, but coaches and equipment managers and trainers. Everybody wants to get to the National Hockey League, so I want everybody to continue to develop."
It didn't take long for that to payoff with McLean now on staff in the NHL.
And even though he's in a new place in his career, McLean says he isn't going to change what got him here.
There's no reason to.
"I'm coming at it the same way," McLean said. "I really believe that you always have to continue to develop. Obviously, NHL players and the top ones are more finished products than the ones in the American Hockey League. But all the best players want to coached, they want to continue to improve and get better.
"My thought process, and I know our thought process as a staff is, development never stops. As an assistant coach, your job is to support the head coach and support the players in any way you can. That never changes, no matter what the league is."