Two Broken Hands and a Lifetime of Memories: Matt Mangene Looks Back at His Time in Texas as He Returns to Scout for Dallas

(Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

Defenseman (and occasional forward) Matt Mangene spent four seasons with the Texas Stars from 2014-2018. After his time in Cedar Park, he went to Springfield and later overseas before becoming a collegiate scout for the Penguins. Now, he has returned to the Dallas organization as a professional scout covering the northeast.

Mangene and I spent half an hour catching up the other week about his time in Texas, his experiences afterwards, the transition to scouting and his memories of the 2018 Calder Cup Finals. Sometimes when you have enough time between the events in question and the present day, you get stories you'd never get otherwise. This was a nice example of that principle. Hope you enjoy.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Stephen Meserve, 100 Degree Hockey: You spent a good bit of time here in Texas and now made your way back through the pro scouting ranks. I’d love to hear more about what that's been like and your journey to get there. To get started, what was your journey like after you left the Dallas organization and Texas? We haven't really chatted since then.

Matt Mangene: After I left Texas, I spent two years with Springfield. I was in Springfield when COVID hit and everything shut down. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do post career, and actually got to play one year over in Europe in Austria. Then that summer, I was planning to go back over to Europe to play in Germany. 

Then Pittsburgh hired on Ron Hextall and Chris Pryor, who were my GM and assistant GM when I was with Philly. At the time, they called me asking if I was interested in becoming their college scout for the next couple of years. I ended up jumping on with them and started the post-hockey part of my career. It was something I was always interested in. I didn't know if I wanted to do coaching or management, but once this fell on my lap, I knew I wanted to stay on this side and go from there. 

Meserve: So you were all signed up ready to go play in the DEL, was it?

Mangene: Yeah, I was signed up to go play in the DEL, and then got the contract the same day Pittsburgh called me. I decided on Pittsburgh and decided not to go over to Europe.

(Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

Meserve: I mean, that's a big decision, though, to stop lacing them up every day. What was it about that moment that made you say, ‘I think this is the time to hang up skates and start moving in the professional scouting ranks’?

Mangene: I knew how hard it was to get your foot in the door in management. I remember before COVID not knowing if I was gonna have a job next year. I was [making] calls to coach and scout, and obviously there wasn't much going on.. So when Pittsburgh sent me that, I just thought to myself that this is a good opportunity to do something that I want to do the rest of my life and keeps me in hockey, which I love, and something I always want to keep doing. Also a good stepping stone to start learning this side of the business.

Meserve: Speaking of that side of the business, it is obviously a change. What does your typical week look like as a scout?

Mangene: When I was [scouting] college, I only saw three games a week. I actually did some coaching on the side just to be on the ice and still do a little bit of that. Now doing the pro side with Dallas, it's usually six, maybe sometimes seven games a week, depending on the schedule and who you need to see. It's a lot busier, a little more travel, but I love it. I don't really consider it a job. I get to go watch hockey and help try to make the Stars a better team and be in those conversations. It's almost like a dream.

Meserve: It could be hard to have six or seven games a week. That's a lot of time to be on the road.

Mangene: Where I live [in Connecticut], it's nice. I only live [90 minutes] from Boston, two hours from New York City and Jersey. Most nights I can make it home after a game. For Thanksgiving, I was able to be home all week and still be able to get to some games. Where I live makes it doable, where I can still balance my family and my life and my work side.

Meserve: Which teams do you cover now?

Mangene: I basically look over the Metro Division plus Boston plus their minor league teams.

Meserve: What’s it been like working with the other pro scouts who work with Dallas?

Mangene: We all kind of share it together and come up with a plan. It's nice working with a smaller group, I think. All of us are on the same page, and we all understand our jobs. It's a great organization, great people to work for. I mean, I've known them for a while. I played for them, and now working for them I see why they're so successful. 

Even when I was working with Pittsburgh, I always wanted to know how Dallas did things, because of how long they've been successful, and bringing guys up from the minors and being full time NHL guys. Even when I was at Pittsburgh, I always tried the stuff that I learned while I was playing for Texas. I tried to integrate it in Pittsburgh a little bit, just because of how successful it was and how I saw it work, especially looking at it back from when I played till now. You’ve got Roope Hintz, Esa Lindell, guys that I played with that are now the top guys in Dallas. It’s just cool to see how it all translated and worked out throughout the years.

(Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

Meserve: So Hextall gives you that call, and you get your foot in the door. But there isn't a class you can take to learn how to scout. How did you learn the way to do it, the way to structure it, and how to make the observations that you're looking for? How much of it was just innate from being a hockey player, and how much of it had to be learned?

Mangene: I had a lot of help. My main boss in Pittsburgh was [then Director of Player Personnel and later Asst GM] Chris Pryor. He's done it for a long time between the Islanders, the Flyers, Nashville and Pittsburgh, and he's had a lot of success for probably 40 years. So he was the one that kind of took me under his wing and taught me about guys in college from the 18 to 25 year olds, their progressions and everything like that.

He would always help me out, reading my reports and telling me, ‘You gotta look at this guy, what he's gonna be in five years. Or this guy, he's only got probably another year or two to grow’

[Scouting] college was nice, because it was almost like doing amateur and pro. It's in that middle ground. It gave me a stepping stool to go either way. And I think it helped me a lot for the pro side. Because now if I'm watching a prospect I like, if it's a 20 year old prospect, I look at him differently than a 25 year old guy coming in on the same type of deal, so I think that was a big part.

Meserve: You mention maturity curves of guys in college. A guy you probably saw in college and scouted was Justin Hryckowian. What’s your perspective on him and players like him who come through the college ranks like you did and come out to the pros a little more mature and older?

Mangene: I actually scouted [Hryckowian] pretty hard. I actually wanted him too when I was in Pittsburgh. The thing that sticks out with him is just his hockey sense, which is something that's kind of hard to find nowadays because it's all about the skill. He was a guy that had the skill and had the hockey sense. You could picture what he was going to be at the next level.

I think that was my biggest learning curve. The guys that you were able to see what their path could be, or where they would fit at the next level, those are the guys to go after. Not the guys that have put up tons of points in the college level. “Ritzy” is a perfect example. His hockey sense is so high he can think the game quick enough where you can see where he can project in the next couple years.

Meserve: Just to wrap up a little bit here, you spent quite a few seasons here in Texas. In the AHL, time can be fleeting. Sometimes you never know what your next contract is going to be. What do you remember from your time in Texas? What’s your big story or biggest memory from your time here?

Mangene: Probably going to the [2018] Calder Cup Finals. Just the group of guys we had. My four years there we always had a great group of guys: [Maxime Fortunus] and [Travis Morin], assistant coaches now; [Curtis McKenzie], captain now; Dowling and guys I still keep in touch to this day. 

My core memory was losing that Game 7, but just doing it with the group of guys we had. We were all real close. We all hung out. We loved being together. We had a lot of fun together on the road, off the ice, but on the ice, we knew when to put the work in. We were just a close knit group, and just came up that short in Game 7. 

Mangene [far left] celebrates a Texas goal in Game 5 of the Finals with Roope Hintz, Gavin Bayreuther, Brian Flynn and Jason Dickinson (Credit: Texas Stars)

We were picked to be the underdog. People were saying we were gonna get swept by Toronto. It just showed how much fight we had as a group to push a team like that to Game 7. I just remember after the game all of us just sitting in the locker room, and we're just all torn up. I played with two broken hands, another guy played with a half-torn shoulder. None of us were even close to being probably 50% healthy, but we still battled through just because of how much we appreciated and loved each other and how close of a group we were. Even a couple weeks ago, I was in Pittsburgh and saw Roope and Esa, and they've been NHLers for a while, and I haven't seen in a while, and they came up right up to me, and we talked for a little so it's good to see those guys and see how great they're doing.

Meserve: I remember that the national media was all against Texas, right? Because they’re Toronto and they’ve got this “unbelievable talent”, all this other stuff. I remember the quote that [then Stars head coach] Derek Laxdal gave me at the time was that they might be a Ferrari, but Texas is a 1968 Camaro. Shine it up a little bit and tune up the engine, and it’ll run just fine. And it was sure true. I mean, you guys had them right up until the end.

Mangene: I remember they had all the big contracts, guys making a lot more money than we were. They were the favorites. And I think all of us just tuned it out and said, ‘We're just gonna give these guys everything we have.’ And we had them. A couple of bounces here and there. We could have probably won it, but it is what it is, and it was just enjoyable being a part of that team.

From the start of that playoffs, to be honest, I didn't even think I was going to play a game, just because I was coming off a broken hand. I didn't play any regular season games the last two months, and I was just gonna be around for the playoff ride and just be one of the guys. For Laxdal and [Texas GM Scott White] to have the trust in me after missing two months, to come back and start playing the playoffs right away, I couldn't appreciate it more. 

Meserve: You ended up playing every one of those 22 games, right?

Mangene: Yeah, I ended up playing every single game. I broke my hand in February that year. I came back and actually broke my other hand in Game 3 of the first series against Ontario, and just played through it the rest of the way.

Meserve: You've been more than generous with your time. I appreciate it.