Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Macdonald won the Calder Trophy and the Stanley Cup in 1940. MacDonald played 151 career NHL games, scoring 36 goals and 34 assists for 70 points. Macdonald played for the Ottawa Montagnards (both senior & junior) from 1930-33. He then played a year in Lake Placid before moving to Northern Ontario in 1934. At that time, at the heioght of the Great Depression, many hockey players moved to that region to play senior hockey and to get jobs in the mines.