Michael McCarron

0:00You're listening to the official Minnesota wild pond cast, presented by Acresher. Yeah, I just, I was playing soccer before my game in Columbus and my coach came over to me and said, come to my office and this time of year it's not always the, you know, you kind of know what's coming and just went in his office and got on a phone call with Barry and told me that I've been traded and just basically thanked me for my time there. I was in Nashville for long time, six years and I grew a lot there as a person, as a human and just basically thanked me for my time in the community there and said I was being traded. To Minnesota, I was very thrilled, I'm from Detroit, I'm a Midwest boy so I get, I get this area part of the country and I haven't been here in a long time but super, super excited to come into such a well-oiled machine, they need such a great, great team, hard to play against, had some good battles against a lot of guys on this team and I'm happy I'm on

1:01their side now so, very excited. That's gonna say wild fans are familiar with you, probably not the biggest fans, right? Yeah. When was the interaction talking to Zagrelo and all these guys, you've had those run-ins as opposition? Yeah, I, I got a lot of, a lot of hate, hate mail from, from a lot of Minnesotians or what do you call them? Yeah. From a lot of them, not too happy with the way I reacted against, against Zagrelo and I just saw him this morning and he just shook my hand really hard and said, how's your hand feel? And the joke was over so, yeah, it's unfortunate the way it went down, you know, I'm here now and, but yeah, they made jokes out of it and it was good, like I said, it's good to be on their side of things now, a lot of really tough, tough players, tough players to play against on this team and great to be here. You're so clear to that cross your mind when they, you know, you learned, you're coming, like, is it an awkward or it's just the business and once your team gets your teammates? Yeah, no, I mean, I didn't really, I didn't, that wasn't the first thing that came to mind. It was family and moving here so, yeah, I honestly didn't even know it was circling around,

2:07I don't have Twitter anymore, I deleted it a long time ago. So guys said that when I was flying home on the, on the plane with, with Nashville, they told me that it's going around Twitter, my dive against Ucarillo and that, whatever, but yeah. Your strengths, face-offs, penalty kill and obviously size, but what are you excited to bring to this team? Yeah, I mean, I think you just said it, I'm a fourth line center, I have the ability to play a winger center, I think I'm good on the face-offs, I'm good on PK, I bring energy, I'm physical, big body, I like to go to the net, not too flashy, but might not always see me on the score sheet, but I like to do, I do all the little things really well, that's what's kept me here in this league and just happy to do anything I can to help this team win. Sings up with the style of this team that you've played against so many years in the central? Yeah, I mean, the central is all the same really, I mean, very, I mean, this year's a bit different, it's, it's a top dog in the NHL, it's very hard every single night.

3:10You're playing a top five team in the league, it's been really tough, especially in Nashville. Yeah, central's hard, hard knows, dumped a puck in, physical style play, it's pretty much what I played in my whole career and I'm happy that I'm staying in the center because I like playing here. Bill Garenett said he'd keep been talking to Barry for a long time, like maybe over a month, like, so how much of this kind of get on your radar just with where the team was in your contract and that this could happen that you get moved? Yeah, I mean, I think I had an opportunity to be moved. I didn't know his Minnesota. I mean, when I heard that Barry told me it was Minnesota, the first time my agent or really had a heard of Minnesota, he hadn't talked to, hadn't talked to Billy at all. Really, there were many other teams, but Billy believed to me enough and grabbed me and got me in here. So super grateful for this opportunity and like I said, I'm happy to be here. Where did you think you were going to end up? Well, I don't know. There were other teams. I don't know if I feel like I should tell you, but there were some other teams that were

4:14involved in, let's just say not in the central. You're part of a playoff race, though, you have to be invigorating considering how things were going. Yeah, I mean, I was lucky enough to be a part of three in Nashville, three playoff pushes, but yeah, the last couple of years have been a bit of a struggle for us in Nashville. We weren't able to find our way as a group there. And yeah, it started to get a little stale. So I'm super excited to go on a, you know, join a top five, top four team in the league. Maybe even higher, I haven't really looked at the standings too much this year to be honest with you, but I know Minnesota is up there and yeah, this team's amazing. Anything I can do to help this team win I will and whatever role they want to put me in, I'll try to fill those shoes. So I'm ready for the challenge and super excited for a playoff push. Good question, family. Kids, what's that look like to become with you? Yeah, I have a, I have a wife of three, four years. I have two kids.

5:15I have a 17-month-old baby girl and I have a five-month-old boy. So my house is crazy right now, starting to get a little bit less crazy the past month. We started to figure our lives out with four and I also have a dog, a golden retriever Scooby. So they're all going to be making their way here next week during our homestand and yeah, we believe in family a lot and I grew up in a family household and that family value is, we hold a family pretty high on our book. So yeah, they're going to come. Okay. Who the guys have called the glue guy in like a Nashville, like how do you become that kind of a player? Like you think pride in being considered one of those guys that keeps the group together and those kind of the kids. Oh, yeah. I mean, I guess it's just my personality. Yeah, I think the way I play, the way I carry myself off the ice, I think, says a lot about, you know, I mean, there's guys that you have in here that I'm sure are glue guys here that, you know, who would you consider a glue guy, guys who stick up for your teammates, guys who are very consistent in the way they play, and also a guy who includes everybody

6:19off the ice. So I feel like that's who I am, it's not who I try to be, it's just who I am and I can't help it. Um, yeah, I like to, I like to be called a, I don't, I mean, it's great to hear that. But, um, yeah, the best place to go for all your Minnesota wild audio needs is the official Minnesota wild podcast presented by Acre Assure. Everything Minnesota wild related, including highlights, press conferences, players, coaches, general managers, and more, it's available on the official Minnesota wild podcast presented by Acre Assure. So I'll just a click away at wild.com slash podcast.