In a forgettable season for both the Philadelphia Flyers and its Adirondack Phantoms farm team, the play of left winger Tye McGinn was one of the few bright spots. McGinn quietly showed improvement from his rookie professional season, and he did not look out of place in 18 games with the big club.
McGinn, who will turn 23 next Monday, is a classic late-blooming forward. Cut by the OHL's Ottawa 67s after his first junior year (three goals, 11 points in 59 games), McGinn switched leagues and joined the QMJHL's Gatineau Olympiques. Bypassed twice in the NHL Draft, McGinn was finally drafted by the Flyers in the fourth round (119th overall) in the 2010 NHL Draft.
I had never seen McGinn play prior to being drafted by the Flyers. My first look at him came at the Flyers' 2010 Rookie Camp shortly prior to veterans officially reporting for the start of full camp. In my
blog of Sept. 13, 2010, I wrote that McGinn's natural skill set was unremarkable but he spent a lot of time going to the "greasy" areas around the net and was adept at deflecting pucks. Those would be the attributes, along with a willingness to muck in the corners and occasionally drop the gloves, that could eventually get him a pro contract.
McGinn returned to Gatineau for an overage season in 2010-11, and he displayed an appropriate level of dominance -- 31 goals, 64 points in just 42 games -- for a physically mature player with four years of junior experience playing against primarily younger and physically weaker opponents. In 2011-12, he joined the Phantoms for his first professional season.
As a rookie, McGinn was brought along slowly by then-coach Joe Paterson. He primarily played in the bottom six in the first half of the season and then saw increased time on the upper lines in the second half. He finished his rookie campaign with a dozen goals, 18 points and 45 penalty minutes in 63 games.
This past season, McGinn showed across-the-board improvement. He worked on on two of his weakest areas -- skating and defensive play --and was one of the few Phantoms apart from Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier who provided any sort of scoring pop in the first few months of the 2012-13 campaign.
McGinn's solid play for the Phantoms earned him a training camp invite during the Flyers abbreviated camp after the end of the NHL lockout. Although he barely got a look at camp (which did not include any exhibition games), McGinn made his NHL debut for the Flyers on Jan. 22 in New Jersey.
Yo-yoing from the NHL to the AHL for the rest of the season, McGinn wound up playing in 18 games for the Flyers, scoring three goals and five points to go along with 19 penalty minutes. McGinn was deployed in various spots around the lineup, including a short stint on Claude Giroux's line after Scott Hartnell was lost for a month due to injury.
McGinn suffered an injury setback of his own on February 25. Dropping the gloves with Toronto's Mike Brown, McGinn lost the fight and sustained a fractured orbital bone in the process. Upon his return, he later dressed in two additional games with the big club (March 16 against the Rangers and April 3 against the Canadiens). Overall, McGinn averaged 12:41 of ice time in his time with the Flyers.
As of now, McGinn is on the bubble of making the Flyers' opening night roster. I suspect he's going to fall victim to the numbers game and start the year with Adirondack. McGinn still needs further improvement in his skating and defense to be able to have a regular role on the big club, as he is not a high-end scorer or someone who could be expected to serve as a primary enforcer. However, he showed last year that he is effective on the boards and has a strong work ethic. McGinn consistently makes second and third efforts to dig out loose pucks and he will pop a few goals from near the net.
If the Flyers end up re-signing Simon Gagne, McGinn's chances of making the club out of camp become pretty slim. He still has a year of waiver exemption left, and Gagne (even in decline) is still a better all-around player by a significant margin.
Right now, McGinn is something of an AHL-NHL tweener. However, I wouldn't bet against him eventually carving out a full-time NHL niche. Go back two summers ago, and he fit the characteristics of a player who would struggle to rise above the AHL at all. Go back a little further, and he was marginal to ever be drafted let alone have a pro career.
Year after year, McGinn has shown significant improvement. He is also still young enough to continue that upward trend. McGinn is the type of player who often finds a spot in the NHL long after more naturally gifted players have fallen by the wayside. He outworks them and he wants it more.
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Former Flyers forward Ian Laperriere, now the organization's Director of Player Development, will be participating in the Ironman Mont-Tremblant: North American Championship on August 18. Apart from competing in the triatholon, Lappy is raising funds for a variety of charitable causes: the IRONMAN Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation and Go4theGoal Foundation- Tunes4Teens. Laperriere has set a $10,000 fundraising goal. For more information or to make a donation,
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