Men's Ice Hockey | 2/5/2026 12:03:35 PM

Anthony Thomas-Maroon has heard it his entire life. Before every new team and at every level of his hockey career, the comparison comes first. He is Pat Maroon’s son. The rest, until now, has often been secondary.

Now playing with the Muskegon Lumberjacks, Anthony is learning how to live with that reality while building something that belongs to him. He isn’t running from the connection, but he also isn’t leaning on it. 

What stands out most when talking with him is how little time he spends on narratives and how much time he spends focused on the work in front of him.

“I think it’s going well,” Thomas-Maroon said when asked to assess his season so far. “I think we have a really good group of guys. Our team’s really good. All in all, I think it’s going really well, and I’m having a lot of fun with it.”

That answer sums up his approach.

The focus for Thomas-Maroon has remained on the team, the day-to-day process, and the enjoyment that comes with competing at a high level. Through 40 games this season with Muskegon, the 17-year-old has recorded two goals and 13 assists for 15 points.

The jump to the USHL from playing with the Long Island Gulls 16U team last season has been a meaningful one.The league’s faster pace, combined with the presence of older, bigger, and stronger players with more developed skill sets, has made the transition a real challenge.

The pace of play, however, has highlighted one of the strengths of Thomas-Maroon’s game. His playmaking has translated smoothly to the league, as his ability to process plays and react instinctively has allowed him to adapt effectively.

While Thomas-Maroon is carving out his role on the ice, his off-ice environment is unlike most prospects’.

His father joined the Lumberjacks as an assistant coach prior to the start of the season, a move that was run by the young forward for his approval.

“Our coach, Colten St. Clair, called me beforehand to make sure it was okay,” Thomas-Maroon said. “He told me I could say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ He just thought it would be good for the group. I just told him, ‘Utilize him. I feel like the guys will love him.’”

Pat’s presence is structured, but limited.

He joins the team roughly once a month for about a week at a time, which has helped keep the dynamic professional rather than overwhelming. For Thomas-Maroon, it has also created something he never really had growing up.

Pat had just finished his 14-year NHL career, a run that saw the 37-year-old win three consecutive Stanley Cup championships with the St. Louis Blues and Tampa Bay Lightning organizations.

He now brings that experience to Muskegon’s bench, but his sphere of influence reaches wider than that.

Pat’s path through hockey is well known. A sixth-round pick who wasn’t expected to become an NHL regular, he enjoyed a long career as a grinder, something every successful team needs. That story is one Thomas-Maroon leans on, especially when the noise around his own name grows louder.

“Him having that path helps me a lot,” Thomas-Maroon said. “Just being that guy who kept pushing through everything and not giving up. He tells me all the time to look at his path and see how far he’s come. He wasn’t supposed to play in the NHL. He wasn’t supposed to get drafted. He just kept pushing and proved everyone wrong.”

There is no escaping the labels that come with his last name, and the young forward understands that some people will always view him through the lens of his father’s career.

His response to that attention has remained consistent, tuning it out rather than letting it define him. Having dealt with those assumptions for most of his life, he treats them as background noise.

That same mentality carried over when he was selected to play in the 2026 Chipotle All-American Game, an annual event showcasing some of the top NHL Draft-eligible players from the U.S. National Team Development Program and the USHL.

For Thomas-Maroon, the experience was about learning and perspective as much as anything else. Playing with and against elite players in his age group reinforced the level he’s chasing.

“Just learning from them, getting a couple tips, talking to them, seeing how they think the game and what they’re doing throughout their careers. I think it was good,” he said.

About the USHL

The United States Hockey League (USHL) and its 16 teams are committed to being the world's leading junior hockey league. This season, more than 50% of NCAA Division I men's hockey players and nearly 25% of NHL players have USHL experience. The USHL has developed more than 285 direct NHL Draft picks since 2020, and eight of the last 10 Hobey Baker Award winners, including Macklin Celebrini (Chicago Steel).

Elevated through the recently announced Declaration of Excellence with the NHL and USA Hockey, the league's player-first approach, including a 2:1 practice-to-game ratio and a schedule with 90% of games played on weekends, provides its players with the optimal environment for athletic and personal growth, creating pathways for the next generation of stars like Auston Matthews (NTDP), Kyle Connor (Youngstown Phantoms), Jeremy Swayman (Sioux Falls Stampede), and Johnny Gaudreau (Dubuque Fighting Saints).