Fresh Meat: Canucks Claim Brandon McMillan From Coyotes

The mothership has reported Sir Benning has gone out and brought a local kid home:

Vancouver Canucks General Manager Jim Benning announced today that the Canucks have claimed left winger Brandon McMillan off of waivers.

McMillan, 24 has three points in 50 games for the Arizona Coyotes this season (1-2-3) and has recorded 16 penalty minutes. In 163 career NHL games McMillan has 35 points (14-21-35) and 60 penalty minutes playing for the Coyotes and Anaheim Ducks organizations.

The 5’11", 190-pound winger was originally selected by Anaheim 85th overall in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. McMillan is a native of Richmond, B.C.

On to the essentials: his nickname is "Mac", he hearts Joe Sakic, the Foo Fighters and The Shawshank Redemption and enjoys playing golf in his free time. That latter point may be helpful soon.

McMillan had a solid 2010-11 in Anaheim (60GP, 11 G, 10A) but spent the next two seasons floating back and forth between Anaheim and the AHL; not not unlike Linden Vey McMillan wasn't consistent enough to crack a loaded NHL roster in front of him. At the 2013 tradeline he was moved to Phoenix for Matthew "remember me?" Lombardi. McMillan played 50 games this season but was ultimately waived as the Coyotes opted to pluck his replacement Mark Arcobello off waivers from Pittsburgh yesterday.

His scouted talent seems to match what Benning is looking for in newer prospects but his most recent campaign, coupled with the fact he was waived and likely heading back to the AHL had he cleared, makes him very much a question mark:

The 24-year-old played 22 games for the Coyotes this season while netting two goals, four assists and six points. He finished the season as a zero rating player (+/- 0) while playing 12:35 per game. He also was an effective player from an advanced stats standpoint, finishing the year as a positive Corsi player, generating more shots for the Coyotes while he was on the ice than the opponents. He also drew eight penalties while taking only two and had a pretty low PDO of 98.3.

The PDO is interesting to look at because it suggests McMillan had a tough shooting season, with only two goals on 35 shots (5.7%). He actually shot more this season (1.59 shots per game) than he had in his career entering 2014 (1.15 shots per game in Anaheim). The low PDO indicates that McMillan was unlucky in finding the back of the net, and if he continues to shoot at a good clip like his 20-game audition this year, he could be a 10-20 goal player in a full season with normalized shooting percentages.

A low risk move, it's tough to say if McMillan stays up or if he's being added to the prospect stockpile should Benning make another move with the deadline looming two and half weeks from now.