Mckenna Van Gelder Wants to Grow with San Jose

Mckenna Van Gelder knows she’s a rookie. She also doesn’t plan to play like one. 

The former Cornell captain is heading into her first PWHL season with San Jose, joining a young team that she believes has the talent to make an immediate impression. Her role will be different from what it was in college, and she knows she’ll have to earn her place in the lineup, but Van Gelder isn’t coming into the league simply hoping to find her footing.

She already has an idea of the kind of player she wants to be. 

“We are underdogs but I don’t think that we’re going to play like we’re a young team,” Van Gelder said to The Hockey News. “We’re going to come into the league and play like we’re a bunch of veteran players.”

That was part of the appeal of San Jose when Van Gelder was deciding how to begin her professional career. She looked at the players, the staff, and the potential of the group and saw a team she wanted to grow with. She wanted a two-year deal because she wasn’t just thinking about making the jump to the PWHL; she could see herself being part of what San Jose is trying to build.

“This is the spot I want to be for at least the first couple years of my PWHL career,” she said. “This team has a lot of potential to do well.”

Signing before training camp has made the transition a little easier, too. There is still plenty for Van Gelder to figure out as she moves from college hockey to the professional game, but now she doesn’t have to spend the weeks before camp wondering whether she’ll have a place on the roster. 

Instead, she can start getting to know the team she’ll be playing with, which includes some familiar faces. 

Rory Guilday, one of Van Gelder’s former Cornell teammates, is also in San Jose. Kristin O’Neill, another Cornell alum, was at the school before Van Gelder’s time there, but the two have stayed familiar through alumni events. For Van Gelder, having a couple of recognizable faces around matters as she makes the jump into a new league and a new environment. 

“Knowing that the things I might need, I can get from my teammates is really comforting,” she said. “I can go in more as myself than if I was going to a brand new environment where I didn’t know anyone.”

Guilday is especially familiar territory. The two played together for several years at Cornell, and Van Gelder knows exactly what to do when she needs a little lift. 

“If I need to smile that day, I can go to her,” Van Gelder said.

That comfort will be useful as Van Gelder figures out where she fits on the ice as well. At Cornell, she was a Captain and a leader, but her game in San Jose won’t necessarily look the same. She expects to compete for her spot and take on more of a physical game, becoming the kind of player who can establish a forecheck, make life uncomfortable for opponents, and give San Jose’s more offensive forwards the freedom to focus on racking up goals. 

“I’m going to try to play more physical, be more of a nuisance on the ice, get under the other team’s skin so our goal scorers and our really skilled players playing above me can do their jobs,” Van Gelder said.

It's a role that requires a different kind of contribution. Van Gelder may not always be the player putting points on the board, but she wants to be someone her teammates can trust when she's on the ice. That approach isn't all that different from how she led at Cornell.

“My leadership style at Cornell was lead by example more so than a speaking role, but I did speak when necessary,” she said.

She doesn't expect being a rookie to change that. San Jose's young roster means she won't be walking into a room where she's the only inexperienced player, and many of the players already know one another from playing against each other or alongside each other in college. Van Gelder believes that gives the group a chance to grow together, rather than spending the season trying to figure out how everyone fits.

For her, the biggest adjustment may simply be learning how to handle the demands of a professional season. Even the offseason has required some recalibration. It was longer than any offseason she'd experienced before, forcing her to figure out when to ramp up her training and when to pull back so she wouldn't arrive at camp already worn down.

Hockey itself will change, too. At Cornell, she knew what was expected of her. In San Jose, she may play less or more than she is used to on any given night. She may be asked to do the physical work one night and something different the next.

What matters, she said, is being ready whenever her number is called.

“I think, as long as you’re giving 100% every time you’re on the ice, whether that’s one time a game or thirty times a game, that matters,” she said. “Everything you do on the ice, even practice wise, being the best teammate you can be whether you’re a healthy scratch or scoring a bunch of goals, it’s all towards the goal of winning the Walter Cup.”

Eventually, though, all of the preparation will give way to something much harder to prepare for.

Her first game at SAP Center.

Van Gelder has been imagining a moment like that since she was a kid. At eight years old, she said, she used to tell herself she was going to play in the NHL. Now there is a professional women's league where she can actually do it, and a San Jose team that she has chosen to build the beginning of her career around.

“Having this opportunity to play in something that you dreamed of since you were a little girl is unreal,” she said.

She knows the moment she walks into SAP Center for that first game will bring her back to that eight-year-old version of herself.

“I’m going to go back to my 8 year old self who said ‘I’m going to play in the NHL,’ but now I have an actual league for myself to play in,” she said.

The dream is finally here. Van Gelder just doesn't intend to spend much time standing around admiring it. She has a new team to help build, a new role to establish and, if things go the way she believes they can, a young San Jose roster ready to show the league what it can do.

For the fans, she has a simple message.

“Get excited.”