Jake McCabe

He was born in Eau Claire on October 12, 1993, played one varsity season at Memorial High, then left for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program and finished high school in three years.

At Memorial he put up 22 points in 23 games as a freshman. Wisconsin Badgers hockey came next: a severed finger tendon as a freshman, All-Big Ten as a junior. Buffalo selected him forty-fourth overall in 2012. He captained the United States to World Junior gold in 2013, scoring three goals and three assists with a plus-nine and making the all-tournament team. His father, David, had played college hockey at Alaska Fairbanks and built the backyard rink; family construction and landscaping work helped pay the youth-hockey bills.

NHL stops followed with the Sabres and Blackhawks before a 2023 deadline trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he has been a top-four, stay-at-home defenseman and posted a career-high eight goals and twenty-eight points in 2023–24. Brother Andrew later won a Division III national title at UW–Eau Claire; cousin Eric Decker caught NFL passes. McCabe is the clean current-athlete hometown claim: born here, Memorial, still the name local rinks use when they tell kids it can be done.