Derek MacKenzie (born June 11, 1981) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

player who most notably played for the

Atlanta Thrashers The Atlanta Thrashers were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta. Atlanta was granted a franchise in the National Hockey League (NHL) on June 25, 1997, and became the League's 28th franchise when it began play in the 1999–2000 seaso ...

Columbus Blue Jackets The Columbus Blue Jackets (often simply referred to as the Jackets) are a professional ice hockey team based in Columbus, Ohio. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference ...

and the

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference, and initially played their home g ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

(NHL). He was drafted 128th overall by the

in the

1999 NHL Entry Draft The 1999 NHL Entry Draft was the 37th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 26 at the FleetCenter in Boston. According to ''Sports Illustrated'' and other sports news agencies, at the time the 1999 draft was considered one of the deepest in talen ...

. He also played in the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the lea ...

(AHL) for Columbus' and Atlanta's

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s, the Syracuse Crunch and

Chicago Wolves The Chicago Wolves are a professional ice hockey team playing in the American Hockey League and are the top minor-league affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League. The Wolves play home games at the Allstate Arena in the C ...

respectively. While with the Wolves, MacKenzie was part of a

Calder Cup The Calder Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the playoff champions of the American Hockey League. It was first presented in 1937 to the Syracuse Stars. The cup is made of sterling silver mounted on a base of Brazilian mahogany. In its curr ...

championship team in 2002 and also spent time as the team's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. He set franchise records in career shorthanded goals for both AHL teams. His father, Ken MacKenzie, is the

assistant general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overa ...

's Sudbury Wolves. He is served as an assistant coach for the Florida Panthers until the 2021-2022 NHL season, whom he previously served as captain of from

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

. On November 9, 2022 the Sudbury Wolves announced that MacKenzie was named the team's 31st Head Coach.

Playing career

Amateur

MacKenzie began his junior career playing for his hometown Sudbury Wolves of the

(OHL). Following his second season, in which he increased his point production from 20 to 87, he was drafted by the

in the fifth round, 128 overall, in the 1999

(NHL) entry draft. In his final season, he registered 40 goals and 89 points leading the Wolves in points and finishing sixth in the OHL. He also finished with a

face-off A face-off is the method used to begin and restart play after goals in some sports using sticks, primarily ice hockey, bandy, floorball, broomball, rinkball, and lacrosse. During a face-off, two teams line up in opposition to each other, and t ...

winning percent of 67%, winning both the OHL and

Canadian Hockey League The Canadian Hockey League (CHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey ‒ LCH) is an umbrella organization that represents the three Canada-based major junior ice hockey leagues. The CHL was founded in 1975 as the Canadian Major Junior Hockey ...

(CHL) Face-off Awards.

Professional

Atlanta Thrashers

Following his final season with Sudbury, MacKenzie joined the Thrashers'

(AHL) affiliate, the

. He registered 13 goals and 25 points. He also made his NHL debut for the Thrashers during the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

, against the

on April 12, 2002. By season's end, the Wolves finished with 86 points and qualified for the playoffs. In the playoffs, MacKenzie helped the Wolves win their first

championship. Over the next three seasons, MacKenzie played mainly with the Wolves, helping them back to the Calder Cup finals in 2005. The following

, he was named team

. In the opening minutes of his first home game as captain, MacKenzie crashed into the opposing team's net and broke his ankle. He returned later in the season and helped the Wolves to the franchise's 500th win. In the game, MacKenzie scored his third career

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three w ...

in the 7–3 victory over the

Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights The Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights were a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They played in Omaha, Nebraska, United States at the Omaha Civic Auditorium from 2005–07. Following the 2006–07 season, the Calgary Flames annou ...

. He finished the season playing 36 games and registering 10 goals and 22 points, while the Wolves finished with 86 points and missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. MacKenzie spent one more season in the Thrashers system before becoming a free agent. He finished his Thrashers career with 2 assists and 20

penalty minutes A penalty in ice hockey is a punishment for an infringement of the rules. Most penalties are enforced by sending the offending player to a penalty box for a set number of minutes. During the penalty the player may not participate in play. Penaltie ...

(PIMs) in 28 NHL games, and 377 games played, 83 goals, and 184 points for Chicago. He also set a franchise record for shorthanded goals with 21. Derek Mackenzie

Columbus Blue Jackets

In the off-season, MacKenzie was signed by the Columbus Blue Jackets to one-year, two-way contract. He began the season in the AHL playing for the Syracuse Crunch. He made his Blue Jackets debut on December 10, 2007, against the

Anaheim Ducks The Anaheim Ducks are a professional ice hockey team based in Anaheim, California. The Ducks compete in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division, and play their home games at Honda Center ...

; he was reassigned to Syracuse the following day. Later in the season, he was re-called and scored his first career NHL goal against Mike Smith in a game against the

Tampa Bay Lightning The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. They play ...

. At the end of the season, Columbus re-signed MacKenzie to a two-year contract. He continued to split time between Columbus and Syracuse until the 2010–11 season. During his time in Syracuse, he set the Crunch team record with 11 career shorthanded goals. He established himself as an NHL regular in 2010–11 and finished the season with career highs in goals (9), assists (14), points (23) and plus-minus rating. His +14 was the highest for a forward and third-highest total in Blue Jackets history. After establishing himself, MacKenzie became a fixture on the Blue Jackets' fourth line and an integral part of their penalty kill. The following season, he spent the entire year with the Blue Jackets. Towards the end of the season, MacKenzie suffered a

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentration ...

and missed the final 16 games of the season. He finished with 7 goals and 14 points in a career-high 66 games while leading the Blue Jackets with a +4 rating. After passing an off-season physical, due to concussion concerns, Columbus re-signed MacKenzie to a two-year deal.

Florida Panthers

On July 1, 2014, MacKenzie signed a three-year contract as a free agent with the Florida Panthers. Two years later, on October 9, 2016, he was named the ninth captain in Panthers' history. On September 17, 2018, he was removed as captain and replaced by

Aleksander Barkov Aleksander Aleksandrovich "Sasha" Barkov (russian: Александр Александрович Барков; born 2 September 1995) is a Finnish professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League ...

. After playing only one game that season, he retired in the offseason and was named an assistant coach for the Panthers on June 4, 2019.

International play

Internationally, MacKenzie represented

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

at the

2001 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships The 2001 IIHF World U20 Championship, commonly referred as the 2001 World Junior Hockey Championships (''2001 WJHC''), was the 25th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. The tournament was held in Moscow and Podolsk, Russia from Dec ...

. He registered a goal and three points in seven games. He also won 58.1% of his face-offs, the eight-highest percentage in the tournament. In group play, Canada went 2–1–1 to finish third in Group B. In the playoff round, Canada defeated the

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2–1 before losing to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

in the semi-final. Following the loss, Canada played

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in the bronze medal game, winning 2–1 and earning MacKenzie his lone international medal.

Personal

MacKenzie is married with two children. His father, Ken MacKenzie, is the

of the OHL's Sudbury Wolves. Mackenzie is also good friends with former NHL forward Mike Fisher, whom he played with in Sudbury.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackenzie, Derek 1981 births Living people Atlanta Thrashers draft picks Atlanta Thrashers players Canadian ice hockey centres Chicago Wolves players Columbus Blue Jackets players Florida Panthers players Ice hockey people from Ontario Sportspeople from Greater Sudbury Sudbury Wolves players Syracuse Crunch players Florida Panthers coaches