"For me, I really take pride in being a mature kid and I feel like I went into the interview knowing what I wanted to get across," McGroarty said. "I had the right answers. I came in with a smile on my face, shook their hands and looked them in the eye, and I felt that's definitely something that left a mark on them."
Mission accomplished. The Jets selected the Nebraska native with the No. 14 pick in the draft.
"He plays the game hard and he answers the questions hard," Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said. "It's one of those things that, again, as an organization, drafting a player with those kinds of attributes is exciting.
"In the interview process, he was obviously great. The questions that we asked and the way he answered them and the way that he plays the game are consistent."
That consistency, McGroarty said, comes from growing up in a hockey household. His Canada-born father began coaching in the United States Hockey League in 2003, including 11 seasons in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Jim McGroarty is now entering his fourth season as general manager of Muskegon in the USHL.
"Growing up in a USHL locker room, I feel like I really matured a lot quicker than other kids," said McGroarty. "Just being a kid from Nebraska … when it's time to work you better come ready to go."
It's that attitude and work ethic which won over the Jets.
"I think you have to really look at the intangibles when you look at a player like McGroarty," Cheveldayoff said. "There are probably some guys who are better skaters, more skillful. But if you look at his numbers over the different leagues he's played in, he's scored 50 goals. Doing that with the type of attitude and the type of character and the type of hardness that he has, man, I think that smile on his face coming toward our table (at the draft) is going to be etched into my memory for a long, long time. That was genuine. That was real. That's what he's all about."
The forward, who will play for the University of Michigan this season, was fourth on the USA Hockey National Team Development Program Under-18 team with 69 points (35 goals, 34 assists) and third with six power-play goals in 54 games. He led second-place United States with eight goals and 34 shots in six games at the 2022 IIHF Under-18 World Championship.
McGroarty (6-foot, 200 pounds) is the highest-drafted player in the NHL to come from Nebraska, and the first since the Pittsburgh Penguins selected Jake Guentzel (No. 77 in 2013 NHL Draft), whose father also coached in the USHL in Omaha.
McGroarty is also the first Nebraska-native to play for the NTDP and said he feels pride in coming from a non-traditional hockey market.
"It just kind of shows if you work hard enough and you really compete every time you're out there… (scouts) will find you," said McGroarty. "If you can beat your opponent off the ice then on the ice you're more physically ready. On the ice, I would just say (I have) that kind of feeling of I don't really care who I'm going against. I am going to beat you."
"I'm ready to do it all."
