Islanders prospect Matt Maggio found pro hockey clarity thanks to concussion

It was, ironically, a concussion that gave Matt Maggio some needed clarity during his first season playing professional hockey.

The Islanders prospect, who won the Red Tilson Award as the Ontario Hockey League’s MVP in 2022-23, spent the first few months of last season struggling to adapt to the demands of the AHL.

Where he had been able to run rampant in juniors a few months earlier, he now came up against the physical demands of facing men every night and the coaching staff’s demands that he adhere to their systems.

He could count his point total on one hand entering Christmas break, then picked up a concussion.

At one point, Bridgeport coach Rick Kowalsky recalled, Maggio leaned over to assistant coach Matt Macdonald on the team bus and told him, “I didn’t think pro hockey was gonna be this hard.”

“I needed to play more simple,” Maggio said last week at rookie camp. “I needed to be harder on pucks against those bigger guys. I need to play with energy every night, be consistent. That’s the thing I really want to focus on is being consistent. I feel like I came back and worked my way up the lines there, ended up playing with [Ruslan] Iskhakov for most of that second half. I felt like that was great.”

Maggio is only 21, but unlike most at that age, speaks about himself with learned fluency.

He finished last season with 16 goals and 11 assists on a Bridgeport team that struggled for most of the season and came to camp this year with an improved shot and total candor.

The likelihood of the former fifth-round pick cracking the roster out of training camp, which starts Thursday, is low given the lack of available space.

But an NHL debut via call-up this season is something Maggio could see at some point, provided he gives the Islanders reason to do so.

“He’s learned a lot about [the grind],” Kowalsky said. “And obviously prepares over the summer and can take what he learned. You look for him each year to take another step. Physically he still has a ways to go in terms of just maturing and growing. And then mentally, knowing what he’s getting into this year and how hard that really is.”

Maggio put on some muscle this summer and took the opportunity to train in Vancouver for five weeks with a group that included Mathew Barzal, Connor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini and Kent Johnson.

Closer to his hometown of Windsor, Ontario, Maggio also worked in Toronto with NHL Hall of Famer and skills coach Adam Oates, which meant skating with Bo Horvat.

“Just having a familiar face out there is obviously great,” Maggio said. “Kinda just being able to [have] something to talk to [Horvat] about is obviously awesome. I’m new to it, kinda just getting started with that. Trying to look at every way I can to improve my odds and make myself the best player I can. It’s a process and no one’s where they want to be at 21 years old.

“You want to be able to build as much as you can in those years and be ready when the time is. If that’s working with a skills coach in the summer, working with a mental coach, with a nutritionist, I think those are all things you can’t overlook. If he gives you one extra percent during the year, you’re gonna take that.”

For all that work, though, the biggest difference this season might simply be that Maggio knows what he’s in for.

“Obviously you come off a junior season, I don’t know how to put this, but obviously it’s not the skill level that it is here,” Maggio said. “You kinda get to do what you want out there, so you come in with that confidence of, I can just do anything. And then you come out here, you’re playing against the best guys in the world. You’re in such a structured environment, you definitely have to hone things in. I just feel like I had to come in and really look at myself and figure out what works for me and what doesn’t work for me.”