Updated: 1 minute agoFargo Force forward Mac Swanson, of Anchorage, takes the ice at a home game during the 2023-24 USHL season.
He quickly established himself as an indispensable playmaker on the team’s top line. A season later, he was playoff MVP in leading the Force to the Clark Cup title and was named the USHL’sIt wasn’t the first time Swanson has turned an assumption on its head, and it likely won’t be the last. At 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds,But the doubters haven’t had any better luck stopping Swanson than defenders on the ice.
“It was definitely pretty funny,” he said. “They obviously knew that I was younger. And yeah, it’s definitely an adjustment the first month or two. It’s pretty difficult playing against guys that are way bigger than you and stronger.” His second season with the Force this past winter meant a new set of challenges. At 17 when the season started, he was still young by the league’s standards but was responsible for not only making plays to set up teammates, but generating more for himself.
Along the way, Swanson has continued to prove himself at yet another level — international play. He had a successful tournament for Team USA in the U17 Five Nations Tournament in late summer 2022. In early December 2022, he helped Team USA to a gold medal in the World Junior A Challenge with a goal and four assists in six games.In 2023, he scored four points in four games at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and made headlines at the World Junior Challenge in Truro, Nova Scotia.
Fargo Force forward Mac Swanson, of Anchorage, makes a pass during a home game during the 2023-24 USHL season. While much has been made of Swanson’s lack of ideal size, he has used other parts of his game to become an outstanding two-way player. His alchemy of skills include excellent passing and what Eades calls “elite hockey sense.”
Mac Swanson's father, Brian Swanson, playing for the Alaska Aces, controls the puck as Michael Gergen of the Bakersfield Condors tries to snag it in a November 2011 game at Sullivan Arena.