About Last Season: Brock McGinn Performance Review and Grade

Brock McGinn 2020-21 Season By The Numbers

• Age: 27
• NHL Seasons: 6
• Scoring: 8 goals, 5 assists, 13 points in 37 games
• Advanced Numbers: 53.64 CF%, 53.52 SCF%, 54.91 xG%, 53.13 GF%
• Average TOI: 12:46 ES, 0:03 PP, 2:09 SH
• Contract Status: Signed four-year, $2.75 million AAV deal with Pittsburgh Penguins this offseason

A depth forward who receives consistent praise from coaches and teammates for his hard work and the way he plays the game, Brock McGinn had a productive 2020-21 season for the Canes despite being hindered by some injury troubles.

McGinn played in the Canes’ first 37 games of the season, but was sidelined for the final 19 games of the regular season after suffering an upper-body injury on April 4 against the Dallas Stars. McGinn returned for the playoffs, though, playing in all 11 postseason games the Hurricanes played.

On paper, McGinn was having one of the stronger seasons of his career before the injury came. His 13 points in 37 games would put him on an 82-game pace of 29 points, which would be one short of his career high, and his 0.25 goals per games played in 2021 was by far the best of his career.

In the advanced metrics, McGinn played as a plus-player, producing CF, SCF, xGF and xG percentages above 50 percent across the board. His offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency and WAR were way up, though all come with the asterisk of a very small sample size with just 37 games played.

JFresh Hockey

McGinn, as he has been for a few years, was a bottom-six forward for the Canes, averaging 12:46 of even-strength time on ice, and he didn’t play the power play. But what McGinn did well again in 2020-21, that he’s always been great at, was play on Carolina’s penalty kill, which was one of the league’s best this past season.

McGinn averaged 2:09 of shorthanded ice time per game, the most among all Canes’ forwards and fourth on the team overall. His relative Corsi for percentage shorthanded was 1.8, making him and Jaccob Slavin the only two members of the Canes with positive numbers and more than 2:00 of shorthanded time per game.

And while he was great on the penalty kill, he was a somewhat streaky scorer for the Hurricanes in 2020-21. He started the season with five straight games without registering a point, but then got hot and tallied at least one in eight of 11 games.

That stretch included a four-game goal streak in February, where he tallied a goal in four straight road games.

A few games after that four-game goal streak, McGinn recorded the second four-point game of his career in a 7-3 drubbing of the Columbus Blue Jackets. McGinn assisted a Sebastian Aho goal in the first period, scored himself and assisted a Teuvo Teravainen goal in the second and then tallied again midway through the third period to bring his total to four points.

That hot streak for McGinn, which featured 11 points in 11 games, came to a halt with a seven-game scoreless streak. He had an assist and a goal in a three-game span in early March, but then finished his regular season with 11 straight games without a point.

Then the injury came, and McGinn found himself off the ice for the final month of the regular season. But when the playoffs started back, so did McGinn, who made a major impact for the Canes in their first-round series against the Nashville Predators.

McGinn scored three goals and an assist in that series, scoring twice in game three and putting up two points with a goal and an assist in the decisive game six.

In game three, McGinn tallied late in the second period to tie the game at 2-2, bringing the Canes back even as they headed into the final intermission. He scored again just 13 seconds into the third period, just 2:08 of game time after his first, to give the Canes a 3-2 lead with a soaring effort.

McGinn came back with a goal and an assist in the series-clinching game six for the Canes, netting the first of the game for Carolina to tie things up at 1-1 in the first period. He added an assist on a game-tying goal from Dougie Hamilton in the third period, which forced overtime.

All in all, McGinn did what McGinn does in 2020-21, grinding and working hard for the Canes, much to the appreciation of the coaching staff and the fans. He earned himself the four-year contract he signed with the Penguins, that’s for sure.

The upper-body injury that sidelined McGinn for the last month of the regular season was costly for him, as another month of action could’ve seen McGinn really solidify what may have turned into the best season of his NHL career.