The Iowa Wild have signed 34-year-old veteran defenseman Steve McCarthy to a professional tryout agreement (PTO).
NEWS: #IAWild has signed NHL veteran defenseman Steve McCarthy to a PTO. More: http://t.co/vhSxvzYGx3 pic.twitter.com/Qn9hHk6rng
— Iowa Wild (@IAWild) February 24, 2015
A former first round pick (#23 overall) by the Chicago Blackhawks, McCarthy has played in 302 NHL games split between the Chicago Blackhawks, Vancouver Canucks, and Atlanta Thrashers. (Did it take you a second to recognize the jersey in that picture?) He’s been out of the NHL since the 2007-08 season and has bounced around between the AHL, KHL, Finnish Elite League, and the NLA, where he has spent most of his time since the 2007-08 season.
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The vet has only played in three games so far this season, all logged for the Springfield Falcons of the AHL, where he didn’t log any points and put up six penalty minutes.
In his 302 NHL games he’s posted 17 goals, 38 assists, and 168 penalty minutes.
He’s been brought in to help stop the bleeding for Iowa as they have continued to lose players to injury and call-ups. The team currently has both Matt Dumba and Christian Folin — who have spent time in Iowa this year — up playing with the Minnesota Wild. On top of that, injuries to Gustav Olofsson (who has yet to play this season), Brad Richard, Guillaume Gelinas, Alex Gudbranson, and Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel have left Iowa’s blue line looking pretty thin.
Unrelated to McCarthy’s signing, but it’s the case at forward as well, with Stephane Veilleux, Michael Keranen, and Jordan Schroeder all up in the NHL, as well as Brett Bulmer, Jason Gregoire, Joe Perry, Raphael Bussieres, and Joel Rechlicz all out of the lineup due to injury. (Ruslan Fedotenko also missed significant time recently due to injury.)
Steve McCarthy will join the team immediately and could play as soon as Tuesday night’s game against the Grand Rapids Griffins at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.