McKade Webster is a plug-and-play player for Denver’s hockey team.

The junior forward scales well anywhere in the lineup. He played plenty on the fourth line during last season’s NCAA title run, and finished with 14 points. This season, he’s played mainly on the second and third lines and is on track to edge past that point total.

A fierce competitor, he’s also an assistant captain for the Pioneers, as well as a member of both special teams.

He talked with. Magness Mayhem founder Chris Bayee this week about his path through hockey and what it felt like to be the second person in his family to win an NCAA title, among many other things.

What drew you to Denver? I know you had quite a few options during your recruiting process. What has stood out to you about this place?

I was committed to Yale, and I decided I wanted to re-open my options. Denver was the first spot I came to visit. (My family) had always come out to Colorado for ski trips over spring break, and I always grew up Colorado, loving the mountains, everything about it. When I came to visit, it was DC’s first year, got to know him, and Tavis and Fergie, and fell in love with the place. I had a great recruiting visit. Met a bunch of the guys. I decided that was where I wanted to go.

Did you connect with another fellow St. Louis hockey alum, former DU defenseman Michael Davies while you were here?

Davies was the one I went on my recruiting visit with. I stayed over at his place, and he showed me around. It was nice having a St. Louis guy show me around and help me out, give me the ins and outs. It definitely helped get me here.

St. Louis is a growing a hockey market. How did you get into the sport?

No one in my family played. My parents were both athletes in college but they didn’t play hockey. But my cousin played, he ended up playing at Penn State. I watched him when I was really young, and I guess I just told my parents, “This is what I wanted to do.” I wanted to play hockey. During first-year Mites my coaches were Doug Weight, Billy Guerin, and Paul Cavillini – all ex-NHLers. I just fell in love with the game from there and learned from those guys coming up. St. Louis has done a great job at having the alumni and older players who played in the NHL coming back and coaching. I think it’s really helped.

Your sister Makenna is also into hockey, to put it mildly. (She won an NCAA championship at Wisconsin in 2021). Did she start about the same time you did?

No, she was a little bit later than me. She was a figure skater to start off. I don’t think that was the path for her. She didn’t enjoy getting dressed up and putting on too much makeup, she was more of a tom boy growing up. She wanted to play hockey, and she wanted to play with the boys, and she did until she was 14 when hitting started. Then she moved into girls hockey. She’s been killing it. (4 minutes)

Here you are, working your butt off, you’ve been drafted by the Tampa Bay Lighting, and she won a national championship before you did. Was there any sibling trash talk about that?

I was really excited for her. It’s such a special accomplishment. It was so exciting, but I was definitely a little jealous of her. I got it from a couple of my buddies and some family members that she was now the No. 1 child in the family after winning that, so luckily last year we came out and won it so we could be on even ground. It’s something special. I don’t know how often that happens between a brother and sister winning national championships, especially in back-to-back years. It was an unbelievable experience for both of us.

Was she able to go to the Frozen Four last year?

Yeah. Their season ends a couple weeks before ours, so she was able to come up to Boston and watch me play. She was all fired up for me.

When you look at this year’s DU team and compare it to last season’s team, what differences are there, and what are some areas that are similar?

It’s one of the challenges of being one of the top teams in college hockey, the turnover rate. You lose a lot of guys going to the NHL or the AHL, especially top-end guys. That’s a challenge every top team faces. For us, the turnover went great. We have a great group of freshmen. In this room, from one to four, one to seven on the backend, anyone can play in any position. We have the guys in the room to do exactly what we did last year. The main differences I see is we’re a bit younger this year in terms of experience. Also, I think our team is faster this year. There’s a lot of similarities with our game – high skill, high pace. I don’t see too many differences between our teams last year and this year. It’s just carrying the torch and trying to find success.

Is there a point in the season when the team’s offense started to come of age? Do you have the depth for another deep NCAA run?

Going into the postseason, you need depth scoring, and I think that’s what separates teams. Some teams will have a great first line, second line, and the third and fourth are a liability. With our team, any line can be put out there in any situation, and they have an opportunity to score or make an impact out there. Having that depth that can make the impact in every game, that changes the game for your team.

What sorts of things do you enjoy doing with your free time?

I love being outdoors, I love skiing, I love being on a lake. I love golf. I play video games with the guys. We hang out a lot together and have fun. We’re close, like brothers.

What is the video game of choice right now?

FIFA 23. With the World Cup and everything, I’ve grown to love soccer.

Are there any teammates of yours here at DU who are particularly funny?

We definitely have a few comedians in the room. Guys that pop into my mind are Mike Benning, Sean Behrens, they’re two funny guys. Matty Davis is another funny guy. We have a lot of guys who like to keep it light. We have a real good crew of guys.

If you were voting for a President among your American teammates, who would it be? And given you have a lot of Canadian teammates, let’s pick a Prime Minister, too.

Oh man, who would get my vote. This is a tough one. (Captain) Justin Lee would get my vote for Canada’s Prime Minister. For America, Jared Wright would get my vote for President.

Why is that?

He’s a little bit of a quieter guy, he analyzes everything. He’s such a great human being. He be friends with anyone, he has that personality. Everyone gravitates toward him.

Do you have a go-to meal, or more importantly, go-to breakfast?

I go with breakfast. Three pieces of bacon, two overeasy eggs, and an everything bagel. Then I’ll throw a little Chick-fil-A sauce on top. For pregame, it’s just chicken, rice, the hockey standards.

We talked about how big of an influence the Blues were growing up, but were there players that you looked up to as well?

It changes over time. Sidney Crosby is my favorite player of all-time, and he still is. I named my dog after him. In terms of Blues, the players I loved were David Backes, T.J. Oshie, David Perron, Alexander Steen. Those were the guys I watched growing up.

©First Line Editorial 2023