Bryan McCabe

Did You Know?

• After retiring, McCabe worked as a development coach and later Director of Player Personnel for the Florida Panthers, winning the Stanley Cup in 2024.
• He met his wife Roberta, a native of Long Island, during his time with the New York Islanders.
• McCabe and the Panthers parted ways in late July 2026.

Playing career

McCabe began his junior hockey career with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1991–92. After one and a half seasons there, he was traded to the Spokane Chiefs, finishing the 1992–93 season with 60 points in 60 games. That summer, the New York Islanders selected him 40th overall in the second round of the 1993 NHL entry draft. Returning to the Chiefs for 1993–94, he posted a junior career-high 84 points in 64 games.

In his final junior year, he was traded to the Brandon Wheat Kings for the last 20 games of 1994–95, accumulating 69 points in 62 games and earning a first-team WHL All-Star selection. McCabe began his NHL career with the Islanders in 1995–96, recording 23 points as a rookie. Midway through his third season, he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks along with Todd Bertuzzi and a third-round draft pick in exchange for Trevor Linden. After one and a half seasons with the Canucks, he was dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks on the day of the 1999 NHL entry draft as part of a move to allow Vancouver to select Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

Following a 6-goal, 25-point campaign with the Blackhawks in 1999–2000, he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 2, 2000, for Alexander Karpovtsev and a fourth-round pick. In Toronto, he broke out with 17 goals and 43 points in 2001–02, later reaching 53 points two seasons later and finishing fourth in James Norris Memorial Trophy voting with Second Team All-Star honours. During the 2004–05 lockout, he signed with HV71 of the Swedish Elitserien but struggled, recording one goal, no assists, 30 penalty minutes and a –12 rating over ten games before exercising an escape clause.

International play

While still in junior hockey, McCabe won gold medals at three international tournaments: the 1992 Pacific Cup in Japan, and the 1994 and 1995 World Junior Championships. After joining the NHL, he played in three consecutive World Championships (1997, 1998, and 1999), capturing gold in 1997. He was named a reserve for Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin on December 21, 2005, and was moved to the official roster on February 2, 2006, to replace an injured Ed Jovanovski; Canada was eliminated by Russia in the quarter-finals.