Arizona Coyotes Sign Winger Jamie McGinn
Michael Clifford
2016-07-01
The Arizona Coyotes have signed winger Jamie McGinn to a three-year contract.
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The Arizona Coyotes have a lot of cap flexibility. They aren’t really in a position to contend yet, so the short-term signings they make now aren’t really any hindrance to the team. With that in mind, the Coyotes signed winger Jamie McGinn today:
Jamie McGinn has signed with Arizona Coyotes, three years, $10 million
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) July 1, 2016
McGinn had a career-year of sorts last year, setting a personal high in goals with 22 and points with 39. That’s not to say that kind of production was completely out of the ordinary, though; McGinn had 38 points in 2013-2014 (with 19 goals), and a 20-goal season in 2011-2012. So while they were career-bests this year, it’s not like it was some extreme outlier. That is important to note.
Some may look at a 14.1-percent shooting rate and think that is extreme as well, but in McGinn’s eight seasons, six of them have been over 11-percent. Even things like his rate of shots on goal, points per minute, and on-ice shooting percentage were all well with reason. In short, nothing was out of the ordinary here.
The question then becomes whether he can produce in the desert. That, like many free agent signings today, will depend on his role. He should fix into the top-six, which is very good news. He’ll be playing with either Martin Hanzel or Max Domi. That should be good for his production. Hopefully he can get on the top power play unit as well, and really garner some fantasy value.
There is a real opportunity here for McGinn to play a good chunk of minutes. He has played under 15 a game each of the last two seasons, despite putting up fairly solid numbers. Considering the lack of wingers in Arizona at the moment, regular top-six minutes and power play time should get him somewhere in the 16-17 minute mark per game.
I don’t like predicting career years for players coming off of one, but things are aligning a bit for McGinn. So long as he stays in the top-six with top power play time, I think 20 goals and 40 points is well within reason. His usage will determine this for certain.
Who this affects positively, in order:
- Jakub Silfverberg
- Nick Ritchie
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, as I wrote in my fantasy take on Chris Stewart, another winger moved out of Anaheim only means more opportunity for the younger players. Silfverberg has shown flashes of solid offensive talent in the last couple years, hopefully this means he can try to realize his potential.
Who this affects negatively, in order:
- No one
As of right now, the Coyotes don’t have enough top-six wingers for this to have any meaningful impact on. This could change as the summer progresses, though.
*Stats from Hockey Reference and Hockey Analysis. Cap information from Cap Friendly.