The top prize is gone. James Robert McGinn IV (yes, that is his full name), however, is out there! As Pierre LeBrun notes:
In the meantime, what happens with Ladd, Eriksson and Boedker has an impact on the next wave of rental scoring forwards underneath them: the likes of Jamie McGinn of the Buffalo Sabres, for example. I think the pending unrestricted free-agent winger ends up being a Monday deal as the teams who struck out on bigger names come back to Buffalo and make a firmer offer.
Jamie McGinn has been one of the less bandied-about names leading up to the deadline because Buffalo, while sellers, have cap room to re-sign a reasonably productive 27-year-old forward. But a decent offer could get the job done, and he might stick out to the Los Angeles Kings for one big reason: he’s on a known trading partner. And failing a big move with the Columbus Blue Jackets, who can only offer Rene Bourque as a rental (NO THANKS), Buffalo might be the first place LA looks. They got Robyn Regehr at the 2013 deadline and Brayden McNabb at the 2014 deadline, and they might return to that well after a year off.
The problem is that the Kings might really want a Marian Gaborik replacement. Is Jamie McGinn a top-six forward? No, not really, even if he is one on Buffalo. As a forward playing a key role on two terrible possession teams in the last three years, he has barely been average in Corsi For% relative to his teammates, and he’s been below average relative to the rest of the NHL.
McGinn, in this case, is relatively similar to some other players we’ve outlined in that his goalscoring prowess may outweigh his possession struggles in the eyes of management. McGinn’s totals have been padded a bit this year by six power play goals (he has eight at even strength) and a 13% shooting percentage. He’s also a net-front type of player, though, and he’s versatile enough to handle a third-line role for a team that is dying for some goals from the bottom six.
Making $2.9 million this season, McGinn is cheap enough to allow LA to pick up a defenseman and productive enough to fill a bottom-six role, but if they want a true horse on their top two lines, he probably won’t cut it.