Back in the lineup: MacDonald returns after long recovery

By Carlynn Claypool

Mar 10, 2026

Nine months is a long time for a hockey player to wait.

For Colorado Eagles defenseman Jacob MacDonald, the wait stretched from the end of last season’s playoffs to Feb. 21, when he finally stepped back onto the ice against the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

Just one year earlier, MacDonald had set an AHL record with 31 goals in a season by a defenseman. But after offseason hip surgery, the game he loved became something he could only watch from the outside.

“There were times where it just felt like it was really, really, really far away,” MacDonald said. “Five months seems like a really long time… watching games and wishing you were out there, along with knowing you can’t be out there for a long time.”

In his first game back, MacDonald didn’t take long to make an impact. Early in the second period, he scored a power-play goal to help the Eagles secure a 6–3 win over the Firebirds.

After the game, MacDonald said the fatigue in his arms surprised him the most.

“I’m pretty tired, but obviously excited to get a win and we played a good game, so it was fun,” MacDonald said. 

But to get back to this point he had to watch his team from the stands while focusing on his own recovery. It started with MacDonald not being able to do much in the first six to eight weeks post-op before his day-to-day life could go back to normal. 

Then came the months of physical rehab, going to games but not being able to play, staying behind on road trips, and then getting back on the ice but skating alone for the first while. 

“Depending on how your recovery is, it could be longer than six [months] and you don’t know how it’s going to go,” MacDonald said. “There’s times where you kind of circle a date on the calendar and you hope you can make it back for that.” 

Even though he didn’t know the exact timeline for his return, MacDonald knew he would return. Then when he had physical challenges with certain movements, he reminded himself those would go away with time. 

“For me, that was the kicker in the back of mind you know it’s going to go away,” MacDonald said. “The little whatever problem it is at that time, it’s going to go away.”

MacDonald said he didn’t struggle much with the mental side of recovery since he knew it wasn’t permanent. 

With a couple months of recovery left, MacDonald and his family went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum where he found the Apollo 13 slogan: “Failure is not an option.” That slogan resonated with him and became a mantra for him throughout the remainder of his recovery.

MacDonald started skating over his last three months of recovery, which ended up being the area where he needed to rebuild his confidence in his body. 

“If you watch my first skate, there’s zero confidence in my head. You have no idea what it’s going to be like,” MacDonald said. “You have no clue what you’re going to be able to do or not do. So that just grows over the two-and-a-half, three months that I was healing.”

Throughout the entire process MacDonald was proud he made the decision and committed to it. Plus, it wasn’t all a challenge, there were some positives.

“One huge benefit of not going on the road is you get a lot of time with family,” MacDonald said. “So, I was able to spend so much quality time with both of them and to see the baby and watch him grow for the last five months; it’s been super cool.”

MacDonald and his wife, Stefannie, had their second child at the end of the 2025/26 season and MacDonald had a pregame routine with his oldest son, Caden. 

During warmups, MacDonald would always skate into the boards where his son was with his arms stretched wide as if giving him a hug through the glass. Since he wasn’t able to do that for the first part of this season, Eagles captain Jayson Megna included it in his own pregame routine.

“He’s such a great leader and such a great person, and I’m very thankful for him and his family, too,” MacDonald said. “It’s obviously a lot of fun seeing him out there with the kiddo on the glass and going through their little routine, it was super cool.” 

MacDonald said it was exciting to get to do that routine again in his first game back and now he’s ready to help his team gear up for the playoffs.

“It was a weird challenge that I never had to do before,” MacDonald said. “Coming back with about 25 games left before the playoffs, I’m proud of the work that I put in to get here today.”