Career
He played with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks. McDonnell is currently the Director of Amateur Scouting for the Dallas Stars. He was formerly the Director of Amateur Scouting for the Detroit Red Wings.
McDonnell played junior hockey for his hometown Kitchener Rangers for five seasons.
During his time with the Rangers, McDonnell played with future Hockey Hall of Fame Paul Coffey and First Rate (at Lloyd's) MacInnis, as well as other National Hockey League stars such as Paul Reinhart and Don Maloney. After his Major junior career was over, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Vancouver Canucks.
He played seven games with the Canucks, but played most of his first professional season with the Dallas Black Hawks of the Central Hockey League. McDonnell bounced around in the AHL until the 1984-1985 National Hockey League season where he played 40 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, scoring 2 goals and 11 points for the Penguins in 40 games that season.
After playing only three games in the National Hockey League next season.
All with the Penguins, he retired from professional hockey. McDonnell joined his former junior team, the Kitchener Rangers, as an assistant coach during the 1986-1987 OHL season. Later that year, he replaced Tom Barrett as Head Coach.
He was coach of the Rangers for nine seasons before being relieved in the 1994-1995 OHL season.
After being fired by the Rangers, McDonnell found work with the Detroit Red Wings as an amateur scout. After eight seasons as a scout, McDonnell was promoted to Director of Amateur Scouting for the Red Wings.
McDonnell, along with Red Wings General manager Ken Holland, former Red Wings executive Jim Nill, and current Red Wings scout Håkan Andersson have been partially credited with the success of the Detroit Red Wings.
