McGroarty excited to get started with Jets

Rutger McGroarty may be from a "non-traditional" hockey market, after being born in Lincoln, Nebraska.
But he might be one of the youngest children to attend a playoff hockey game:
Three days old.
"I was born on a Tuesday and I went to a playoff hockey game on a Friday. I was really born into it," laughed the 14th overall pick. "My dad coached for the Omaha Lancers. So I was born and they were playing in the USHL playoffs."
He's loved the game ever since.
So it's safe to say he'll fit right into a passionate city like Winnipeg.

"I'm definitely pretty fired up," he said, flashing a big smile. "I'm excited. It's such a great organization. I'm pumped."
So is Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, who used a first-round pick on a player from the United States National Development Program for the second straight year after taking Chaz Lucius last season.
"He's an energy guy who comes out and is one of those guys that's going to do anything for an organization to win," said Cheveldayoff. "Combine that with skill, character, leadership, those are the things that draw you to him. We're real excited to have him as part of our organization."

McGroarty is a 6'1", 205-pound forward who lit the lamp 35 times in 54 games with the US Under-18 team this season, and was the squad's captain at the 2022 IIHF World Under-18 tournament.
The 18-year-old had eight goals and nine points in six games, helping the USA to a silver medal, and was named one of the team's Top 3 players in that tournament.
"You have a lot of guys that it was their draft year this year," McGroarty said of the team. "You can talk to each other about it. Just be there for each other. If you see someone struggling, just go up and talk to him, whatever it is - invite him to go golfing. It was an unbelievable atmosphere and I loved every second of it."
He's committed to the University of Michigan for the 2022-23 season and plans to continue to work on his entire game as he works toward a roster spot with the Jets.
A lot of his focus has been on his skating. He works with Barb Underhill - a Canadian Olympic figure skater in 1980, and world champion in 1984 - on that aspect of his game.
"Barb Underhill has been my very first skating coach and I've just started working with her last summer. I'm really excited to work with her," he said. "She sees a lot of potential in my skating. We love each other and have a great relationship so I'm really looking forward to it."
That will to work, keep getting better, and always find ways to find another level are the type of intangibles that Cheveldayoff and his staff see in McGroarty.

Everywhere he goes, he produces. He had 35 points in 34 games with the USA's Under-17 team in 2020-21. He had 33 points in 25 USHL games with the USNTDP juniors this season.
But McGroarty is more than points.
"There are probably guys that are better skaters, more skill, but if you look at all his numbers over the different leagues he's played in - he's scored 50 goals," said Cheveldayoff. "Doing that, with the type of attitude and the type of character he has, that smile on his face coming to our table is going to be etched in my memory for a long time. That's what he's about."
The rest of Thursday night will surely be a blur for McGroarty, who had somewhere between 100 and 105 guests with him at the Bell Centre.
"They're just really good people that care for me," he said. "And everybody's kind of made an impact on my life and kind of helped me get to this point. So we just wanted to extend the invite and everyone ended up coming. So I'm happy to have them."
Just like he was happy to be at that USHL playoff game all those years ago.
It had an impact on him, and now he's hoping to have an impact on other young players as well.
"I'm a kid from Nebraska - a non-traditional hockey market - and hopefully someone sees me talking right now and says 'I'm from Nebraska and I want to play some hockey,'" he said. "I wouldn't say anomaly, I would just say I want to inspire other kids from those non-traditional hockey markets and it's really cool."