Sandy McCarthy was selected by the Calgary Flames in the third round of the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. He began playing hockey in the Georgian Bay Junior C Hockey League with the Midland Centennials and the Central Junior A Hockey League for the Hawkesbury Hawks. As a power forward, McCarthy played for the QMJHLLaval Titan in the 1989–90 season before being drafted by the Calgary Flames. He played one last season with the Titan. His next stop was during the 1992–93 season for the IHL's Salt Lake Golden Eagles. Sandy throughout his career with the Flames played the role as the enforcer, with many major fights. One of his more infamous fights happened while a New York Rangers. In a game on November 8, 2001, against the New York Islanders, McCarthy challenged defenceman Eric Cairns to a fight which Cairns refused. Later in the shift, McCarthy scored and as McCarthy celebrated, Cairns gave him a jab to the jaw, which led to a fight between Cairns and Steve McKenna. While Cairns was in the penalty box, he was called chicken by Theoren Fleury who flapped his arms like a chicken to suggest that Cairns was afraid to fight McCarthy, who flexed his biceps and looked at Cairns. The next time the two teams played against each other on December 21, 2001 Cairns fought McCarthy and beat him. While playing in the NHL, Sandy McCarthy became well known for incidents surrounding racial slurs. In the year 1998, McCarthy was accused of racial insensitivity in the form of gestures against African-American player, Peter Worrell. Along with teammate Darcy Tucker, allegations were denied and the victim, Worrell, also confirmed he had not seen or heard any racial insults made towards him from either of the Tampa Bay players. McCarthy stated that growing up half aboriginal and half black, he would "never go there" because he had to go through racial taunts growing up. This incident occurred during a game against the Florida Panthers while McCarthy was a player of the Tampa Bay Lighting in 1998. The following season in 1999, McCarthy was a playing for the Philadelphia Flyers when he stated that Toronto Maple Leafs player, Tie Domi, made racial slurs towards him. Domi insisted this was a false accusation against him and went on to say he had no respect for McCarthy and would never partake in a fight with him. An NHL investigation was also conducted that reinforced Domi's denial. As his time in the NHL went on he switched from his role as a power forward in junior hockey to more of a pressure player, offensively as well as defensively. He would stay in Calgary for the next five years before being traded, in 1998, to the Tampa Bay Lightning, for a short stay. His next stop was with the Philadelphia Flyers for the next two seasons then a brief stint for the Carolina Hurricanes. McCarthy would then move on to the New York Rangers in August 2000 where he would have score a career season high 11 goals. The next season, he would score a career high in points with 23. He was then signed by the Boston Bruins during the summer of 2003 then was claimed off waivers at the 2004 trade deadline by the Rangers. In 2012, McCarthy was inducted into the BarrieSports Hall of Fame in Barrie, ON. In his 735 games, 15 season NHL career, McCarthy recorded 72 goals, 76 assists and 1554 penalty minutes. In his 11 seasons in the NHL he made just over 7 million dollars, increasing his yearly amount each year he played.
Coaching career
After 15 seasons in the NHL, McCarthy changed his focus from professional hockey to becoming an assistant head coach with the Woodstock Slammers, a Junior A team in New Brunswick. Andrew McCain, President of the Junior A team stated McCarthy was a "motivator who had strong beliefs in detection and discipline" which would help the team reach their goal of making it to the Royal Bank cup. Since 2015, Sandy has remained a part of the coaching staff of the team and has become the head coach.
March 24, 1998 – Traded by the Calgary Flames, along with Calgary's 1998 3rd and 5th round draft choices, to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Jason Wiemer.
March 20, 1999 – Traded by the Tampa Bay Lightning, along with Mikael Andersson, to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Colin Forbes and Philadelphia's 1999 4th round draft choice.
March 14, 2000 – Traded by the Philadelphia Flyers to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Kent Manderville.
August 4, 2000 – Traded by the Carolina Hurricanes, along with Carolina's 2001 4th round draft choice, to the New York Rangers in exchange for Darren Langdon and Rob DiMaio.
August 12, 2003 – Signed as a free agent with the Boston Bruins.
March 9, 2004 – Claimed off waivers by the New York Rangers from the Boston Bruins.
