Jets claim MacLean on Waivers from Coyotes

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Winnipeg, MB (Sports Network) - The Winnipeg Jets have claimed centre Brett MacLean off waivers from the Phoenix Coyotes.

The 23-year-old London, Ontario native played in 13 games last season for the Coyotes and tallied two goals with one assist.

MacLean led the Ontario Hockey League in goals with 61 for the Oshawa Generals in 2007-2008.

The Coyotes originally selected MacLean in the second round of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. He has scored 74 goals in three seasons with San Antonio of the American Hockey League.

[Robert Earthpig]

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=377539

Well isn't that just dandy. Our best offensive prospect gone - LIKE THAT.
The hate on for Winnipeg will grow a tad, I reckon.

[Fyreman]

Winnipeg, MB (Sports Network) - The Winnipeg Jets have claimed centre Brett MacLean off waivers from the Phoenix Coyotes.

The 23-year-old London, Ontario native played in 13 games last season for the Coyotes and tallied two goals with one assist.

MacLean led the Ontario Hockey League in goals with 61 for the Oshawa Generals in 2007-2008.

The Coyotes originally selected MacLean in the second round of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. He has scored 74 goals in three seasons with San Antonio of the American Hockey League.

Being a little naive in the reasoning behind this move, could someone explain to me why we let a goal scorer go when that has been a problem (scoring goals) for us for many years? I'm desperate for a logical explanation...

[GMBBrian]

Maybe the Coyote brass thinks O'Sullivan will continue his pre-season pace and get 100 points lol

[52G228PIM1996-97]

He got outworked by EVERYBODY at camp, this is no big loss..

[phillip]

I want to see young talent on this team. not mediocre also rans. The story this season is going to be Fighting for the right to lose to the #1 seeded team in the playoffs and then have a bad draft. I want to see the team be #1. Either in playoff slot or in draft pick. Tired of the mediocrity.

[penfold314]

He got outworked by EVERYBODY at camp, this is no big loss..

Miele will take his place. No big loss. At least MacLean will get another change to play at the NHL level

[Fyreman]

I want to see young talent on this team. not mediocre also rans. The story this season is going to be Fighting for the right to lose to the #1 seeded team in the playoffs and then have a bad draft. I want to see the team be #1. Either in playoff slot or in draft pick. Tired of the mediocrity.

Can't agree more. We seem to embrace players who have very short periods of greatness, but fail in developing any true goal scorer that will carry the team forward.

The chase for a playoff spot can only generate enthusiasm for so long, to continue to be bounced in the first round builds NOTHING, and to use retreads from other teams leads to an increase in mediocrity.

[Kaibur]

In my opinion, they made a mistake. POS scoring a bunch of points in preseason is nice and all, but it's just that - preseason, a bunch of games that don't count against weaker talent that's still being evaluated. The chances that POS or Chipchura would clear waivers is much higher than Maclean - and they can both be more easily replaced. This move, and putting Tikhonov on waivers, shows a lack of trust by Maloney and Tippett in the ability of their subordinates to draft AND develop prospects. Top 6 forwards are generally difficult and expensive to acquire, so why not run our top end scoring prospects all the way to the end and then cut bait if need be. 13 games at 8 minutes per is enough to evaluate whether Mac could be a 20 goal scorer and PP producer at the NHL level? Somehow I doubt it. If our PP is in the bottom third AGAIN this year, I won't be surprised.

[yotesreign]

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=377539

Well isn't that just dandy. Our best offensive prospect gone - LIKE THAT.
The hate on for Winnipeg will grow a tad, I reckon.

I got a good laugh this morning reading the comments attached to that article & seeing the + and - numbers for the comments. Any comment with a whiff of 'bad for Jets' gets many negative votes, while any comment that cheerleads 'yay Jets' gets voted up.

lol

[Waldo]

[quote=ahplk;37558357]I don't think it was a matter of him not being able to make the team...sounds like he requested a trade.

"- Forward Brett MacLean, who was not involved in practice sessions the past two days, has asked to be put on waivers if the Coyotes cannot work out a trade. That waiver designation probably will happen Wednesday, and if he clears, he would be assigned to Portland." http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes ... ndogs.html

"Brett MacLean of the Coyotes requested to be traded, no trade was made so MacLean has been placed on waivers." @***********[/quote]

[CBL]

Ahh, yeah, sure. I bet he would have been playing on the first or second line, but he doesn't want to be in Phoenix so he requested a trade/waiver!

I would say it's a matter of not making the cut and if he requested the trade/waiver it was more of a moot point than anything else.

Mac: "I didn't make the cut [or would have possibly been a healthy scratch], so I'm okay with being traded/placed on the waiver wire."

As much as I would have liked to see him stick around, his greatest strength (historically) has been with Turris and since he won't be playing here, Mac would be nothing more than a stopgap for injuries (we have plenty of other forwards that can serve this purpose). If I recall correctly, he said in one of the articles (after being unofficially cut), that he wasn't happy with his camp and agreed that he still needed to focus on increasing his speed and defensive game to play with the 'Yotes.

I trust GMDM is chatting with Winnipeg about Turris as well:

I wouldn't mind adding Antropov, Burmistrov, Little, Scheifele, Slater, or Wellwood to the roster in the right trade deals

In fact, Cormier, Gagnon, Maxwell (eventually), or Stapleton could help us more than Turris is at the moment

[Kaibur]

As much as I would have liked to see him stick around, his greatest strength (historically) has been with Turris and since he won't be playing here, Mac would be nothing more than a stopgap for injuries (we have plenty of other forwards that can serve this purpose). If I recall correctly, he said in one of the articles (after being unofficially cut), that he wasn't happy with his camp and agreed that he still needed to focus on increasing his speed and defensive game to play with the 'Yotes.

What are you talking about? He put up 50 points in 51 games in the A last season without playing with Turris and 23 of those were goals. He only played with Turris one full season - 09/10 - and although he put up 30 goals that season in the A, he's also put up big numbers with other centers, including during junior with Tavares. He works very well as a goal scorer - something this team is in desperate need of - when put on a line with a skilled center. During preseason I don't think he was put with Langkow at all, which along with Doan would have been the line I wanted to see. Whitney worked just fine on the Hanzal line, so there's not need to mess with that. But the fact of the matter is he wasn't going to get a chance to play and build chemistry on a scoring line until he worked his way up from the fourth line on a Tippett team - which is basically impossible for his skillset.

On top of it, Maclean's forte was the PP - one of the areas of weakness for the 10/11 Yotes which wasn't addressed during the offseason, IMO. And he wasn't going to get PP time until about midseason at best. Maybe Winnipeg will handle the next stage of his development better than we did.

Two questions - In the 15 year history of the Yotes, which players drafted by the Yotes went on to score 20+ goals in a season in a Yotes uniform? And, looking at the opening day roster, which players will score 20+ goals for the Yotes this season?

Anybody think goal scoring is going to be a problem? But there's no reason to try to address it internally?
If you can't tell, I'm pretty bitter about this move.

[Robert Earthpig]

If MacLean had a chance to play regularly with a puck wizard like Whitney, he'd be a lock for 20 goals.
Will be interesting to see how he performs in Winnipeg, with the likes of Burmistrov, Little, Antropov and Scheifele dishing him the biscuit. I am betting he comes close to 20 goals this season for the Jets.
The Jets sent Patrice Cormier down to the farm. He was the sealer on the Kovalchuck deal with New Jersey and has a bright future ahead of him. The Jets think highly enough of Mac that they sent their top prospect down (besides Scheifele of course).
Sigh...

[Fyreman]

On top of it, Maclean's forte was the PP - one of the areas of weakness for the 10/11 Yotes which wasn't addressed during the offseason, IMO. And he wasn't going to get PP time until about midseason at best. Maybe Winnipeg will handle the next stage of his development better than we did.

Two questions - In the 15 year history of the Yotes, which players drafted by the Yotes went on to score 20+ goals in a season in a Yotes uniform? And, looking at the opening day roster, which players will score 20+ goals for the Yotes this season?

Anybody think goal scoring is going to be a problem? But there's no reason to try to address it internally?
If you can't tell, I'm pretty bitter about this move.

WOW, brutally honest. Somebody FINALLY mentioned the 300lb Gorilla in the room- NO SCORERS AND AN ABYSMAL PP. Thank-you Kaibur...