Prior to entering free agency, left winger Jamie McGinn was looking to find a bigger role in terms of his ice time as well as leadership, he told Sarah McLellan of AZCentral. The Coyotes were looking for someone to help mentor their young core forwards in Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, and Dylan Strome as well as someone who was willing to get to the dirty areas to score and identified McGinn as someone who would be a fit. Not surprisingly, it didn’t take too long before the two sides agreed to a three year, $10MM contract on July 1st.
McGinn also had someone he could turn to for information about playing in Arizona as his brother Tye spent part of the 2014-15 season with the Coyotes and obviously the elder Jamie liked what he heard.
The 27 year old profiles as a top six forward with Arizona which should give him a chance to beat his career high in points (39) that he set last season, split between Buffalo and Anaheim.
More from around the Western Conference:
- Dallas center prospect Devin Shore is a candidate to step into a bottom six role for the Stars following the departures of Vernon Fiddler (to New Jersey) and Colton Sceviour (to Florida). Shore missed the second half of last season following shoulder surgery but impressed in his freshman pro campaign, picking up 26 points in 23 AHL games. If Shore, a second round pick in 2012, can crack the roster in training camp, he coincidentally will follow in the footsteps of the Stars’ first rounder in 2012, Radek Faksa, writes Steve Hunt of NHL.com. Faksa also suffered a shoulder injury in his first pro season but was still able to crack Dallas’ lineup the following season.
- St. Louis will be changing their playing style to reflect the departures of physical forwards David Backes, Troy Brouwer, and Steve Ott as well as the addition of David Perron, head coach Ken Hitchcock told Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Hitchcock has been working closely with coach-in-waiting Mike Yeo to incorporate part of the system Yeo ran with the Wild into how the Blues want to play next season. While St. Louis will have less toughness in their lineup, they hope to compensate for that by being tougher on the puck, something that Minnesota was known for under Yeo’s tenure. With only RFA Jaden Schwartz left to re-sign this offseason, it doesn’t appear likely that the Blues will wind up doing much to replace the grit they’ve lost as a new deal for him will eat up a big chunk of their remaining cap space.