If you have the opportunity to be a part of the maroon and white, those moments can be some of the best in your life. After being traded from the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds to the Peterborough Petes, the trade transformed Jeff McKercher’s life, on and off the ice.
McKercher is from a small town in the Ottawa region called Moose Creek so arriving in Peterborough in the 1998-99 season meant his parents were able to attend all his home games. His mother had a subscription to The Examiner and created a scrapbook of all the articles. To this day, McKercher and his wife still have the scrapbook and look over it with their children who both play hockey.
“A lot of guys that I knew from training and playing growing up, so it felt like a homecoming,” said McKercher. Several of McKercher’s teammates, Matt Carkner, Adam Dewan, Kurtis Foster, and Pat Kavanagh, were from The Ottawa area.
McKercher gives credit to former Petes general manager Jeff Twohey, head coach Rick Allain, and Assistant Coach Steve Smith for helping him gain back his confidence which helped McKercher make the OHL All-Star Game.
“I just felt like they had a lot of confidence in me,” said McKercher “It’s amazing what it can do to you as a hockey player and it just kind of took off from there and it was a great year and I had a lot of fun.”
Since leaving Peterborough, McKercher has kept in touch with his billet parents, George and Maggie Salas, who he shared with Jason Williams.
“They were excellent people and they treated me like I was one of their own and it was just a great time,” added McKercher. “It was one of the best years of my life.”
McKercher was drafted by the Dallas Stars and had a short professional hockey stint with the Fort Wayne Komets, Mississippi Sea Wolves, and Augusta Lynx.
From 2000-2004 McKercher attended St. Mary’s University in Halifax with a major in criminology and a minor in psychology. He played on the hockey team there with former Peterborough teammate Brad Self and Peterborough native Lindsay Plunkett.
Upon graduating from St. Mary’s, McKercher worked at a young offender’s facility for about six months and gained some experience. Following his time there, McKercher applied to become a police officer. He has worked in all areas of policing including uniform, drugs, and vice and property crimes. McKercher currently works in the auto squad which focuses on stolen vehicles and works with a lot of former hockey players.
McKercher volunteered with the Oshawa Generals where he often saw Twohey. That summer, McKercher returned to Peterborough and began scouting the Toronto area for Twohey. McKercher learned a lot of valuable information about scouting from Twohey, Norm Robert, and Rob McCrae. He eventually moved to Kingston and worked under Doug Gilmore as a scout for the Kingston Frontenacs.
In 2017, he received a phone call from the St. Louis Blues who were looking for a scout for Ontario. After a few interviews, McKercher got the job.
“It’s great,” said McKercher “It’s hockey, it’s never a job, it’s fun going to the rinks every night and watching even going back to Peterborough connecting with people like your dad Mike Davies, Ken Jackman, and Walter DiClemente. Jeff (Twohey) is in the rink all the time too and it’s fun to go back, I love it. It’s nice to get away and do something like that, it’s refreshing.”
As McKercher has been through many different stages of life, he will never forget the time that he spent in Peterborough.
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