Shoot High, Aim Higher

Wade Megan believes in making the most of every opportunity, a philosophy that has served him well this season as he splits time between the Griffins and the Red Wings.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

Growing up, Wade Megan had one advantage that few young hockey players enjoyed: his father knew a lot about hockey and had played the game at the professional level, having spent a couple of seasons in the IHL after starring at Bowling Green State University.

Ron Megan was a defenseman for the Kalamazoo Wings during the 1982-83 season. He also played for the Peoria Prancers in 1983-84, tallying 73 points in 137 games over his two seasons in the IHL – numbers that suggest he had the skills to be a good, two-way player.

It’s no surprise, then, that he would want the son he helped coach to follow in his footsteps, even if his boy played forward.

“Defense was obviously at the front of his mind, so I think I picked up a lot from him, and I picked up his passion and love for the game as well,” he said. “My dad always wanted to get back on the ice, try new things and get better, so I think I absorbed some of that, too.”

Encouraged by his parents to have fun playing the sport, Megan played two years of high school hockey in Canton, N.Y., before heading to South Kent Prep School in Connecticut, where he continued his studies while also playing golf and soccer.

“Getting to the NHL was always in the back of my mind, but I just loved playing,” he said. “I never really felt any pressure from my parents or coaches. Moving away from my family at that age was a big move for me, but I loved it. I think there were 135 kids in the whole school. It was an all-boys school, which doesn’t sound like fun, but it was absolutely incredible. I’m still good friends with a lot of the guys from prep school.”

The schooling served him well as he pondered college. Boston University was always his first choice, but he considered Northeastern, which he liked after visiting the school. “I decided to call them to commit, but when I tried to reach Greg Cronin, who was the coach at the time, he didn’t answer,” Megan said.

Subsequently, Megan had a conversation with a family advisor who suggested that he wait to see if BU would tender an offer. When they did, he jumped at the opportunity to play for the Terriers and legendary coach Jack Parker.

“As a kid growing up, if there was a big-time college hockey game on TV, it always seemed like BU was playing in it, so it was stuck in my head that the school was my first choice,” Megan said.

Megan played four seasons at Boston U., becoming captain his senior year in 2012-13, which was Parker’s 40th and final season as head coach of the Terriers and his 47th overall at the school as a player or coach.

“To go from watching the games on TV to sitting on the bench and being coached by Jack Parker was a great experience,” Megan said. “I was very glad to have found my way there because I learned a lot from him.”

Megan, who had been drafted in the fifth round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the Florida Panthers, played 13 AHL games for the San Antonio Rampage in the spring of 2013 after graduating from BU with a bachelor’s degree in history.

His introduction to pro hockey gave Megan his first taste of what was to come. “There’s no better teacher,” he said. “When you’re getting games under your belt, you’re going to make mistakes in those early stages of your career, so it was good to step into that situation and bank 13 games.”

Megan played in the Florida organization from 2013 to 2016, including a couple of stints with the Cincinnati Cyclones in the ECHL – the first in 2013-14 when his head coach was Ben Simon and the assistant coach was Matt Macdonald, both in the same roles now with the Griffins. He recorded 13 goals in 16 games during the regular season, then added 10 more goals in 22 games in the playoffs.

Simon said he was impressed by Megan almost from day one.

“The way he established trust as a responsible two-way player was almost instantaneous,” Simon said. “He competes hard every night and he’s a good pro and takes care of himself away from the rink, too.”

What Simon came to discover is that Megan is extremely versatile.

“He’s very capable,” Simon said. “You can use him on the wing or at center. He’s good on the top line or on the bottom, the power play or the penalty kill. He just seems to roll with the punches and adapt to whatever role he’s given. He never asks why. He just says OK and goes about his business.”

In many ways, his ability to adapt goes back to what his father first taught him and what he learned from Parker and all the other coaches who followed. Everything starts in the defensive zone.

“When you focus on your play in the ‘D’ zone, the other stuff comes,” he said. “If it goes the other way and you focus on the offense and your defensive play suffers, then the whole thing can fall apart.

“When you’re in that defensive mindset, you might not be creating offensive scoring chances every shift, but coaches at least know they can put you on the ice because you’re going to play well defensively.”

In the summer of 2016, Megan joined the St. Louis Blues organization, which gave him his first taste of the NHL. He made his debut on Dec. 22, 2016, scoring a goal on his first shot in the first period of a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That highlight came in the middle of what would be a career year for Megan, who spent most of the 2016-17 season with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. He led the AHL in goals with 33, adding 33 assists for a total of 66 points in 73 games.

Megan credits his scoring success to playing on the Wolves’ top line with either Kenny Agostino or Andrew Agozzino. Megan developed especially good chemistry with Agostino, who led the Wolves in points with 83.

“I don’t know whether he adapted to my game or if I adapted to his – probably a little bit of both – but it seemed like we always knew what the other was thinking,” he said. “He was always looking for me and I just tried to put myself into good scoring areas, and he would do his thing and find me.

“It’s hard to explain that chemistry, but it’s like you pick up your head and you’re always looking for that one guy. He’s your first look every time, like a quarterback looking for his favorite receiver. If he’s open, he hits him and if not, he’ll check down somewhere else.”

Megan’s scoring output dropped significantly last season – his goals dropped from 33 to 11 and his total points were cut in half – but he felt those numbers were more reflective of the roles he was given under a new coach (Rocky Thompson replaced Craig Berube, who was named associate coach in St. Louis).

“To be honest, I thought I was still playing good hockey but my role on the team was different,” he said. “I settled into a role where I was playing second- or third-line minutes and the coach was using me for a lot of ‘D’ zone draws and killing a lot of penalties with limited power play time. It was a different role but I felt like I was playing it well.”

Megan took a bit of satisfaction from the fact that the Red Wings organization made him a priority signing last summer in spite of his reduced goal production.

“I was happy to sign with Red Wings because they were interested right from the beginning,” he said. “If you’re playing in the NHL, it’s fantastic, and I knew that if I was in the AHL, I would be in Grand Rapids, which is a great city to play in, so that made it a pretty easy decision for me.

“I knew I would be in a good situation regardless of the league.”

His decision has paid dividends at both ends. By the midpoint in the season, he had already played in 11 games for the Red Wings after appearing in only four NHL games in his previous five full seasons in the pro ranks.

“I’m very grateful for another opportunity,” he said. “When I’m in the NHL, my game is a little different because I’m playing third- or fourth-line minutes, whereas I’m able to generate a little more offense in the AHL. In the NHL I need to adjust my game a bit and play well defensively while providing offense where I can.”

For Megan, killing a penalty can sometimes be almost as good as scoring a goal.

“Obviously, the object of the game is to score more goals, but there is a lot of other stuff that goes into a game,” he said. “There are a lot of other little things that you can do to help your team win, especially if you’re doing them well and doing them consistently.”

It’s that kind of attention to detail that led Megan to start a hockey school in Canton for the next generation of young hockey players. He runs the NoCo Hockey Skill Development Camp with Kyle Flanagan, a scout in the Ottawa Senators organization, and Mark Phalon, an assistant coach at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.

“We wanted to give back to our hometown because we all grew up there,” he said. “We wanted to provide an environment where all the kids in that area could come and work on their skills just like I had done early in my career.

“I really saw a jump in my play in college from my sophomore to junior years. I went from eight goals my second season to 20 goals during my junior year by working on the same things that I’m now teaching. It hit me that this stuff really works.”

Megan believes there’s room for improvement in every player’s game.

“It’s all about a commitment to improvement,” he said. “That’s what this game is all about – it’s about getting better. You can always get better. As long as you’re committed to improving and committed to learning, you’ve got a chance.

“Learning never stops. If anything, it needs to pick up a little more the older you get, just to keep up with the younger guys. It’s pretty incredible how quickly some of the young players today can develop and step into professional hockey and become impact players.”

Megan started this season rooming with Red Wings top prospect Filip Zadina, who didn’t turn 19 until Nov. 27.

“When I was his age, I was barely ready to play in college, let alone professional hockey,” Megan said. “I think about how far my game has come from the time when I was going to college. You need to continue to learn and continue to build your game, especially when you’re 18 years old and you have so many more hockey games still ahead of you.”

It’s that pursuit of never-ending improvement that continues to endear Megan to his coaches.

“With Wade, it’s not about the numbers, although he can be a point producer, too,” Simon said. “He plays a lot of minutes for us because we can trust to put him on the ice in a lot of different situations because he’s so responsible.

“He’s been a good fit for our room. He’s a quiet leader who leads by example on the ice every day. He’s just an all-around solid pro.”