Jack Maclellan '12 still has one year to go at Brown, but he has already earned an impressive number of accolades for his efforts on the men's hockey team. Before Brown, Maclellan was named Rookie of the Year during his 2006-2007 season with the Calgary Canucks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, and he hasn't slowed down since. During his sophomore season, Maclellan played in 36-of-37 games and led the Bears in points (34) and goals (15). Most recently, Maclellan has been nominated for the Hobey Baker Award, given to the top NCAA men's hockey player of the season. For his outstanding efforts with the Brown men's hockey team, The Herald has named Maclellan Athlete of the Week.
Herald: Being from Canada, was it pretty much a no-brainer that you would dedicate yourself to hockey?
Maclellan: Yeah, up in Canada it's basically the main sport. Kids kinda get started when they're young, and it's definitely the biggest sport up there. I think I was about four years old when I started playing organized hockey.
Do you follow any other sports?
To be honest, not really. I follow hockey pretty closely, but that's about it.
Compared to other sports, how violent do you actually think hockey is?
It's definitely a physical sport; there's not a lot of sports where players are colliding with each other at such high speeds. But I don't see it as being a whole lot more violent like a sport like football. The biggest difference between hockey and almost any other sport is that in hockey — basically at every level except for college — you can fight, and it's just a five-minute penalty. So lots of people don't agree with that, but it's kinda just a part of the game.
What made you decide to come to Brown three years ago?
I just had the opportunity to go to an Ivy League school, and it was an opportunity that I wouldn't have had without hockey. There's not a lot of people from where I'm from that get a chance to go to a school like Brown. I was recruited by the coaches my last year of junior hockey, and I just thought it was a huge opportunity and I didn't want to let it pass me by.
Can you talk about how the dynamic of the team is this year and how that affects your personal game?
It's the best team I've been on since I've been here. And I think it has a lot to do with both the new players the coaching staff has brought in and kinda the systems they've employed since they've come in. But the coaches have been great, and they've kinda got us playing a different style of hockey...Our trademark is being an in-your-face kinda team — we play hard and we don't make it easy for the opposition to get a win. We're a top team, and we've got a lot of offensive upside this year compared to years past, so that's kinda helped me a lot.... The opportunity to play with some really good players that I've played with has been huge for me.
How do you feel about being nominated for the Hobey Baker Award?
It's obviously a huge honor. I mean, I didn't expect it to happen. And as a junior, still with a year left, it's a huge honor just to be mentioned with some of the names of other players in the country that are also up for the award. And I don't know what the next step with that is, and if this is the last mention my name gets for the award, I think it's still a huge honor and kinda a testament more to the people I've played with and the confidence the coaching staff's had in me to play me as much as they have.
You've just won a really big game. Describe your ideal way to celebrate.
Celebrate a big game? Well, we'd probably go hang out at the No Fun Zone — that's what we call one of the apartments a few of the guys live in. We have a couple of songs that we listen to in the dressing room after a big win and then basically just go out, hang out with the boys, soak it up. That's what we like to do.
You're obviously a talented athlete, but do you have any other talents that most people don't know about?
Probably the only one would be the guitar. I play the guitar, and I've played since I was pretty young. That's definitely a passion of mine — second to hockey.
If you weren't playing hockey, what would you be doing with all of your spare time?
I really don't know. It takes up pretty much all my time, and it's what I like to do, so I honestly don't know where I'd be without it.
Name a few athletes that you admire.
They're all gonna be probably hockey players, but, my favorite player is probably Pavel Datsyuk. And Sidney Crosby is the best hockey player in the world right now, and he's a Canadian and someone I obviously look up to right now. Yeah, those are the two guys that stick out in my mind.
You're in a karaoke bar with those athletes and they're waiting for you to serenade them. What's your song of choice?
It would have to be country. I would probably sing maybe "Watch the Wind Blow By" by Tim McGraw.
What would you like to accomplish after Brown?
To be honest, I just want to see how far I can go with hockey. My goal is to play professional hockey when I'm done here, so that's my main goal right now — to sign with a team when I'm done after my senior year and hopefully have a long career in professional hockey. And if that doesn't work out for me, then I've got a great degree to start a career in something else. As of right now, I just wanna play hockey.
