Kirk MacDonald was named the sixth head coach in the organization's Tier I history on June 13, 2022, joining the Fighting Saints from the Reading Royals (ECHL).
MacDonald was an assistant coach with Reading for the first three years of his pro coaching career, and then took the mantle of the head coaching job as an interim head coach to end the 2016–17 season. He was then tabbed with the official position of head coach and director of hockey operations from the start of the 2017–18 season onward. As a head coach, he led the Royals to a 158-86-34 regular season record. Most recently, the Royals finished first place in the North Division with a 45-17-9 record, and a +57 goal differential.
His coaching career began immediately after retiring from pro hockey in 2013. MacDonald returned to his alma mater, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (R.P.I.) as an assistant coach for the 2013–14 season. There, he coached former Fighting Saints Luke Curadi and Milos Bubela.
As a player, Kirk MacDonald was a consistent source of offense, whether it was at the NCAA level at R.P.I., the ECHL level with the Florida Everblades or with Reading, and at the AHL level with the Albany River Rats, the Providence Bruins, the Iowa Chops and the Houston Aeros. In ten seasons as a professional hockey player, MacDonald scored 96 goals and 121 assists in 406 games.
The culmination of a long career came during the 2012–13 season, his final season as a pro, where he won the Kelly Cup with the Royals. During that run, he scored a shorthanded game-winning goal in a decisive Game 5 against the Cincinnati Cyclones that led the team to the final round to face off against the Stockton Thunder.
MacDonald prepped for his long pro career as a stalwart hockey player at R.P.I. His senior season saw him earn many accolades as captain of the team, including the 2007 Rensselaer Alumni Association Community Service Award, the USCHO.com Unsung Hero Award, R.P.I. Most Inspirational Award, be named a Coca-Cola Community All-American, and be a 2007 Hockey Humanitarian finalist and a Lowe's Senior CLASS Award finalist. He scored 103 points in 137 games as a member of the Engineers.
MacDonald has been an outspoken advocate for cancer research and support as a cancer survivor himself. Through a grueling recovery from testicular cancer and a two month-long stay in the hospital back in 2005, he has been cancer-free since and has been a beacon of support in every community he has lived in for cancer-related causes. He represented the Royals at the Real Men Wear Pink event which benefitted the American Cancer Society of Berks County, and was a celebrity bartender to raise money for Hockey Fights Cancer and the
