Lightning Sign Tye McGinn

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On Tuesday night the Tampa Bay Lightning announced the signing of forward Tye McGinn, who was an unrestricted free agent after not being given a qualifying offer by the Arizona Coyotes. It’s a one-year, two-way deal with a reported value of $660K at the NHL level, according to General Fanager.

McGinn is in a unique situation after not being given a qualifying offer. He signs as an unrestricted free agent, but will be a restricted free agent at the end of his one-year deal with the Lightning, according to General Fanager.

McGinn has made his way around the league the last couple of seasons, playing 18 games for the Flyers in the 2013-14 season. Then playing for the San Jose Sharks to start last season, before getting claimed off waivers by Arizona in March.

Last season he totaled 51 NHL games with two goals and five assists.

The deal signals from Tampa that they’re interested in McGinn playing in the NHL, even though he’s on a two-way deal. McGinn requires waivers to be sent down to the AHL from the NHL, as the Sharks dealt with last season, so Tampa must have some interest in playing him or they are just looking for a bit of insurance in case one of their young players isn’t prepared to make the team out of camp.

For the Sharks and Coyotes, McGinn didn’t provide improved possession, despite getting more offensive zone starts than defensive. So, he was a player starting in the bottom 6 who wasn’t driving play or able to eat up bad zone starts. He averaged under 10 minutes per game and didn’t kill penalties.

In the 2013-14 season he provided very solid offense at the AHL level, scoring 20 goals and 15 assists through 54 games for the Adirondack Phantoms. Tampa (and San Jose before them) must bank on him rekindling a little of that scoring touch at the NHL level and working his way into a secondary scoring role, because the defensive game isn’t there and he’s not the utility knife kind of bottom 6 guy that makes the job of your top two lines easier.

In his career, soon to be 25-year-old McGinn has played 87 NHL games with a total of nine goals, eight assists, and 44 penalty minutes.

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