Connor Mackey��s path to the NHL — let alone to his Rangers debut Saturday — was far from linear.
He was the final defenseman to make the Green Bay Gamblers’ 2015-16 USHL roster, appearing in only 29 games.
He went undrafted after three seasons with Minnesota State. At 27 years old, Mackey has skated in just 40 NHL games.
But in his most recent cameo, he provided a glimpse at a skill set that could lead to more opportunities with the Blueshirts.
Mackey cranked a shot off the post in the first period against the Senators, a flash of his earliest offensive instincts that helped him lead USHL defensemen in points.
Later, he crushed Tim Stutzle with a hit and won a fight against Brady Tkachuk.
All of that has blended together to help Mackey become the “proverbial 200-foot defenseman,” former Minnesota State head coach Mike Hastings, now Wisconsin’s coach, told The Post.
He doesn’t need to run a power play anymore. The hits and the fights and the physicality add more to NHL teams, and Mackey, according to former coaches, relies on a “natural crust” as a defenseman who “plays with an edge.” If he gets the puck at the blue line, it’s not a “dead end,” either, Hastings added.
It took until the 49th game of the Rangers’ season before Mackey, who signed a two-way deal and compiled eight points in 28 games with AHL Hartford, got his first chance.
He might not get another one, and that’s just how being the eighth defenseman in the NHL works.
The windows of opportunity come in spurts. Sometimes, they rarely come at all. But if they’re maximized, as Mackey has learned, there’s always the possibility of an expanded role if everything falls into place.
“He’s had to be in that role [as a last defenseman] in every step in his development, which is — not all players go through that,” former Gamblers coach and current Toledo Walleye coach Pat Mikesch told The Post. “Connor had gone through all of the development and learning how to play in different roles from just having minimal shifts every period to being the top-minute guy on a team a year later.
“I mean, he’s had to fight for ice, is probably the best way to put it, his entire career.”
Mackey’s trajectory changed when he went from the final defenseman — often a healthy scratch and not skating regular shifts — on the Gamblers’ depth chart to compiling 47 points across 60 games the following season. He added strength in the weight room, but entering the summer ahead of the 2016-17 campaign, Mikesch still didn’t know Mackey could anchor the blue line.
Twenty-nine games could show something. Not much, though. But when Minnesota State and assistant coach Todd Knott started attending training camp, Mikesch suggested monitoring Mackey closely.
“If we can get Connor, we’re getting a diamond in the rough,” Hastings recalled Knott saying. “We’re gonna steal one here.”
That year, Mackey quarterbacked the Gamblers’ man-advantage unit and led the USHL with 34 power-play points, becoming the type of defenseman Minnesota State relied on for three seasons.
He could break out pucks. He could defend. He could contribute offensively in the right scenarios, like scoring the game-tying goal in the final minute of the 2018-19 Western Collegiate Hockey Association title game or snapping a tight-angle shot past the North Dakota goalie to force an eventual tie the following season.
Mackey turned down NHL chances to spend a final year with Minnesota State, something that he spoke with his father — Dave Mackey, who logged 126 games across six seasons with the Blackhawks, North Stars and Blues — and Hastings about, among others. He signed an entry-level deal with the Flames in 2020 and earned his first taste of the NHL the following season before Calgary included him in a trade to the Coyotes.
“He’s got a skill set that is much larger than some players might have developed because he’s been that top offensive guy at the Division I level,” Mikesch told The Post. “But he’s also been a depth guy that has to be a great penalty killer and block shots and do all the little things that keeps him around.”
With each coach and at each level, Mackey found ways to flash his “snarl,” his “swagger,” that could make the transition from NCAA hockey to the AHL and beyond. Mackey couldn’t stop trusting that his collection of offensive instincts, physicality and the ability to fight when needed would lead to regular NHL opportunities one day.
It hasn’t happened yet. But if Knott needed evidence to know that belief hasn’t faded, Saturday presented more than enough.