Some elements of Jared McIsaac’s hockey upbringing align him with many Canadian youths: He had a rink in his backyard and was in skates by age 2, and hockey was always in his blood.



What separates McIsaac, though, is that his hockey bloodline comes from what his father, Jamie, calls the “third team” on the ice — the referees. Both Jamie, a longtime ref in the Maritimes, and Jared’s uncle John, a full-time NHL ref since 2016, gave McIsaac opportunities from infancy to watch the game up close.



“He would just sit there, and he would just follow the play,” Jamie said in a phone interview, as he recalled a 9-month-old McIsaac watching the 2001 World U-17 Hockey Challenge. “He never squabbled. He never cried. He just took it all in.”



McIsaac, a defenseman selected in the second round by the Red Wings at last weekend’s draft, grew up in Truro, Nova Scotia, where he idolized fellow Nova Scotians Sidney...