Overview
- The Islanders announced the hiring on Friday, May 29, naming Jay McKee head coach of their newly relocated AHL team, the Hamilton Hammers.
- McKee is a 48-year-old former NHL defenseman who played 802 games and who led the OHL’s Bulldogs to a J. Ross Robertson Cup in his first Hamilton season.
- This will be McKee’s first AHL head-coach job after a one-year AHL assistant stint in 2011-12 and nearly a decade as an OHL head coach.
- The organization expects McKee to both build a competitive AHL club and accelerate the development of top prospects such as Cole Eiserman, Victor Eklund, and Kashawn Aitcheson.
- The vacancy followed Rocky Thompson’s promotion to Peter DeBoer’s NHL staff and the Hammers will play at Hamilton’s renovated TD Coliseum when the team begins AHL play in 2026-27.