Fast-track Mac: Anchorage hockey sensation Mac Swanson continues to thrive at each level

The die was more or less cast on Mac Swanson’s hockey season in 2022. The USHL’S Fargo Force had the rights to the 16-year-old Anchorage forward but planned to send him to a lower-level junior program in Michigan, assuming he’d be best served with another year of seasoning.

That was until the Force hockey staff saw Swanson on the ice.

Within a couple days of the team’s summer camp, Force General Manager Cary Eades was on the phone with Mac’s father, Brian.

“He came to our camp that June and dazzled us,” Eades said. “I told Brian, ‘You know the discussion we had about the slow road? Throw that out the window, because we want him to play for us next year.’ ”

That camp was Swanson’s gateway to a hockey spotlight that has seen him thrive at each succeeding level.

He quickly established himself as an indispensable playmaker on the team’s top line. A season later, he was playoff MVP in leading the Force to the Clark Cup title and was named the USHL’s Player of the Year.

It wasn’t the first time Swanson has turned an assumption on its head, and it likely won’t be the last. At 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds, Swanson’s size has been a topic of debate and a justification for doubt within some hockey circles.

But the doubters haven’t had any better luck stopping Swanson than defenders on the ice.

“He just keeps proving people wrong,” Eades said.

‘A perfect fit’

While Swanson put up good numbers on the ice in his first season with the Force, the move was a big transition. As a 16-year-old more than 2,000 miles from home, the personal and social sides of junior hockey took an adjustment. And there was also the level of play. The USHL is considered the top junior hockey league in the country, packed with future Division I players and NHL draftees.

“Coming as a 16-year-old, you’re playing guys up to 21 years old,” Swanson said. “So it’s a little different than 14U hockey or 15U hockey, where you’re playing against the same age.”

Although he was homesick at times, he credited the team and his billet parents for making his transition to the new league as smooth as possible.

Swanson was listed at 5-foot-7 and listed at less than 160 pounds in his first season. And he was wearing a full cage instead of the more minimal face shield that older players can wear and generally favor.

“It was definitely pretty funny,” he said. “They obviously knew that I was younger. And yeah, it’s definitely an adjustment the first month or two. It’s pretty difficult playing against guys that are way bigger than you and stronger.”

But Swanson proved up to the task and landed in an ideal spot in his first year with the Force, playing with talented linemates Cole Knuble and Bret Link, an Anchorage native himself. Knuble was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2023 and plays for Notre Dame, while Link skates for Colorado College.

Swanson had 12 goals and 43 assists in his first year as the Force won the Anderson Cup as the USHL’s regular-season champion and advanced all the way to the league championship, falling to Youngstown in the Clark Cup finals.

“It was definitely a perfect fit for me,” Swanson said of his linemates. “(Link) was four years older so I never really knew him growing up, but we still hang out in the summers and golf together. I don’t get to play with a ton of Alaskans, so it was a really cool experience playing with him.”

His second season with the Force this past winter meant a new set of challenges. At 17 when the season started, he was still young by the league’s standards but was responsible for not only making plays to set up teammates, but generating more for himself.

Once again, he rose to the challenge. He led the league with 51 assists and added 26 goals to finish in third overall in points. That continued in the playoffs where his 17 points were seven clear of the next highest skater.

“He really pushed his development the whole season and he continued that into the playoffs, where it’s the toughest time of year to produce offense,” Force head coach Brett Skinner said.

Part of that was improving his shot, something Eades said became a top priority for Swanson.

“His shot improved a ton this year,” Eades said. “He scored goals from outside the hashmarks, which I don’t think he did (in his first year). But, you know, we have availability of extra ice during the day, and he took advantage of that. He went to our shooting station off ice and was constantly working at his game.”

Along the way, Swanson has continued to prove himself at yet another level — international play. He had a successful tournament for Team USA in the U17 Five Nations Tournament in late summer 2022. In early December 2022, he helped Team USA to a gold medal in the World Junior A Challenge with a goal and four assists in six games.

[Previously: Anchorage’s Mac Swanson proving he belongs playing on an international stage at Five Nations Tournament]

In 2023, he scored four points in four games at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and made headlines at the World Junior Challenge in Truro, Nova Scotia. His nine assists was a tournament record, and he scored 11 points in six games to tie for top scoring honors on Team USA.

“It’s pretty special putting on the USA jersey,” Swanson said. “You can’t really take it for granted, because it might be the last time. So anytime you can represent USA, I always want to take that opportunity.”

Eades said that mindset has served Swanson well as he continues to succeed against the world’s best players in his age group. It’s also bolstered his reputation in hockey circles.

“Both head coaches called me after those (World Junior) experiences and said, ‘Holy man, I didn’t realize how good of a player Mac Swanson was,’ ” Eades said.

‘I don’t know if I’ve seen a better passer’

While much has been made of Swanson’s lack of ideal size, he has used other parts of his game to become an outstanding two-way player. His alchemy of skills include excellent passing and what Eades calls “elite hockey sense.”

“He’s like one of those quarterbacks that can see three or four different layers,” Eades said. “Everyone sees the obvious first layer pass, some of the better players see the second layer, and he can see the third and fourth layer. You know, I’ve been around the game 40 -plus years as a coach or GM. I don’t know if I’ve seen a better passer.”

Skinner said Swanson’s skill-set is excellent, but his feel for the game, tenacity and ability to control the pace bring him to the next level.

“What separates him are the intangibles, whether it’s his work ethic, his drive and determination, and most notably, his hockey sense,” Skinner said. “Part of the critique of his skating is he plays at different speeds. The modern way of thinking is you just want to be going as fast as you can. He has a good top-end speed and is explosive and a good skater, but he can slow the game down as well. It’s a bit of an optical illusion at times.”

Swanson has good hockey genes. His father, Brian, was also a star in the USHL and a college standout at Colorado College, and he played in the NHL for the Edmonton Oilers and Atlanta Thrashers before eventually retiring from professional hockey as captain of the ECHL’s Alaska Aces. But Mac Swanson has put in hard work over the past few offseasons to make improvements to his game and boost his overall strength.

“I think I always had really good hockey sense, but I think obviously my passing, my shooting — all the skill stuff, I really work hard in the summer,” Swanson said. “It’s kind of a gradual thing, but the last couple years I think it’s really paying off.”

Swanson, now 18, is heading to the University of North Dakota in the fall and will join one of the country’s elite Division I hockey programs. He said he felt “right at home” in visits to the campus, and the school’s enthusiastic fanbase makes him excited to join the program.

Eades himself is a former player and coach at UND and has a close connection with the Fighting Hawks hockey staff.

“I’ve told their coaches, ‘Put him with some guys that can score, and not to expect him to be a typical freshman,’ ” Eades said. “And they know that. They saw him a lot this year. But you know, even though he’s going to be a freshman, he’s not going to play like a freshman and he’s going to be a great addition to their lineup.”

Skinner said the NCHC is a very difficult conference with some of the nation’s best teams and talent across the board. But he said Swanson’s ability to make teammates better and play in a lot of different situations will help his transitions.

Swanson is ready for the new challenge.

“It’s playing a really good conference, playing good teams every single weekend, so it’s not easy,” Swanson said. “But I’m really looking forward to just being a UND hockey player and everything that comes with that. I’m looking forward to the challenge. Obviously it’s not going to be all easy, but I’m excited for it.”

With 32 teams and seven rounds, over 200 players will be drafted at this weekend’s NHL Draft. Swanson is draft eligible and is ranked inside the top 100 by a few organizations that track and rate prospects.

And while he’s talked to a number of NHL teams, Swanson said he isn’t focused on the results.

“I’m not really trying to put too many — too much pressure on me, or expectations, and kind of just let it play out because it’s not really something I can control,” he said.

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Skinner said size is still a major metric within NHL front offices, and it may mean Swanson is overlooked in the draft process as well. But regardless of how the weekend shakes out, Skinner believes Swanson will end up playing professionally.

“We’ll see where he falls, but obviously we’ll be rooting for him on draft day,” he said. “At the end of the day, I think he’s going to be a professional hockey player and he’s going to have a long pro career. ... His approach every day and his mindset is going to allow him the chance to be a pro one day.”

Until that happens, Skinner expects Swanson to continue to be the type of teammate he was in Fargo — a player who makes everyone around him better.

“I’ve got a funny feeling that a lot of (Swanson’s UND teammates) are going to be knocking on the coach’s door to see if they can get the young kid playing with them,” he said.