Kurtis McLean

Kurtis McLean (born November 2, 1980) is a Canadian ice hockey coach and former player. He currently serves as assistant coach for Kiekko-Espoo in the Finnish Mestis.

Early life McLean grew up in the small northern Ontario town of Kirkland Lake and played Midget AAA hockey for the New Liskeard Cubs. He also had a short stint with his hometown team, the Kirkland Lake Legion 87's. He attended Kirkland Lake's Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

Career Undrafted by the Ontario Hockey League after the 1996–97 season, McLean moved to the Trenton Sting of the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League where he played three seasons. His exploits in Tier II Jr. hockey earned him a spot on the Norwich University (NCAA-III) roster the following year and became the first player in NCAA-III history to be named a first team all-American four years in a row.

After his four seasons at Norwich, McLean signed as an undrafted free-agent with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2005. Called up to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins from the Wheeling Nailers during the 2005–06 season, he played 32 games and finished second in total points with 54; third in goals scored with 22; and with a plus/minus of +14. He helped the Penguins win the Eastern Conference Championship and finished third on the team in playoff scoring with 19 points (4 goals and 15 assists).

On July 3, 2008, McLean signed with the New York Islanders. He was called up to the Islanders on January 19, 2009, and scored his first NHL goal, in his second NHL game, against Jean-Sebastien Giguere in a 2–1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on January 21, 2009.

On January 23, 2009, McLean was inducted into Hockey Heritage North. Town mayor Bill Enouy said of McLean, "They will never be able to take that off his resume. No matter what happens in the future, he will always be a guy that played in the NHL".

On May 29, 2009, McLean signed a contract with Finnish club Lukko of the SM-liiga. He stayed for two seasons and captained the team during the 2010–11 season. McLean then moved to Switzerland's Nationalliga A and spent two seasons with the SCL Tigers where he led the team in points both seasons.

On May 22, 2013, Mclean signed for Lukko, signalling a return to Finland, but a month later he departed and instead signed a one-year contract with Metallurg Novokuznetsk of the Kontinental Hockey League. In the 2014–15 season, McLean continued to play in the KHL, splitting the year between Finnish club, Jokerit, and Croatian club, KHL Medveščak Zagreb.

McLean signed a one-year contract with the Vienna Capitals of the EBEL as a free agent on July 31, 2015. He left the Capitals during the season and signed a contract for the remainder of the 2015–16 season with EHC Wolfsburg of the German top flight Deutsche Eishockey Liga on February 16, 2016.

On August 30, 2016, McLean joined the Graz 99ers of the EBEL.

Career statistics Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 2000–01 Trenton Sting OPJHL 47 37 38 75 16 — — — — — 2001–02 Norwich University ECAC 32 28 24 52 12 — — — — — 2002–03 Norwich University ECAC 29 25 23 48 26 — — — — — 2003–04 Norwich University ECAC 28 36 21 57 16 — — — — — 2004–05 Norwich University ECAC 26 29 26 55 6 — — — — — 2004–05 Richmond Riverdogs UHL 4 1 2 3 2 — — — — — 2005–06 Wheeling Nailers ECHL 41 31 25 56 32 5 4 4 8 4 2005–06 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins AHL 32 4 11 15 8 7 0 0 0 4 2006–07 Wheeling Nailers ECHL 16 11 12 23 21 — — — — — 2006–07 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins AHL 55 16 16 32 24 10 4 3 7 4 2007–08 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins AHL 76 22 32 54 58 23 4 15 19 8 2008–09 Bridgeport Sound Tigers AHL 62 15 37 52 30 — — — — — 2008–09 New York Islanders NHL 4 1 0 1 0 — — — — — 2009–10 Lukko SM-l 42 18 25 43 28 4 0 1 1 10 2010–11 Lukko SM-l 60 16 39 55 24 13 4 6 10 4 2011–12 SCL Tigers NLA 49 14 28 42 34 4 3 2 5 2 2012–13 SCL Tigers NLA 46 7 34 41 26 17 4 9 13 20 2013–14 Metallurg Novokuznetsk KHL 47 9 13 22 26 — — — — — 2014–15 Jokerit KHL 20 1 0 1 18 — — — — — 2014–15 KHL Medveščak Zagreb KHL 11 2 3 5 6 — — — — — 2015–16 Vienna Capitals EBEL 39 10 17 27 18 — — — — — 2015–16 Grizzlys Wolfsburg DEL 5 2 3 5 2 15 1 4 5 6 2016–17 Graz 99ers EBEL 54 17 33 50 20 5 0 2 2 6 2017–18 Graz 99ers EBEL 47 6 19 25 37 — — — — — 2018–19 TUTO Hockey Mestis 10 1 2 3 2 — — — — — 2018–19 HC 07 Detva Slovak 7 1 1 2 2 9 1 2 3 6 2019–20 HSC Csíkszereda Erste 34 4 20 24 51 — — — — — 2020–21 Kiekko-Espoo Mestis 31 9 16 25 26 2 0 1 1 2 NHL totals 4 1 0 1 0 — — — — —