Carolina Hurricanes: The Season of Greg McKegg

Greg McKegg was recalled from the Charlotte Checkers in the middle of the season for some much-needed center depth for the Carolina Hurricanes. We take a look at how his season went from the minors to the majors along with some background on his career.

Greg McKegg was promoted on an emergency basis when Carolina Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal was placed on injured reserve with a concussion. This was the first time that he made the Hurricanes NHL roster, however it wasn’t his first time playing in NHL games.

He had 91 games under his belt in stints with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. In those games, McKegg scored seven goals and collected six assists for 13 points.

He was acquired by the Hurricanes in a trade with the Penguins in which Pittsburgh received Josh Jooris in return. This move was made at the 2018 trading deadline and McKegg was viewed as AHL depth for the Hurricanes organization.

Starting his 2018-19 campaign with Carolina’s AHL-affiliate (Charlotte Checkers), McKegg had six goals and 17 assists, totaling 23 points in 31 games played. At this point of the season before his recall, McKegg was fourth on the Checkers in terms of points as well as second in assists. He was having a very successful season for the Checkers and deserved the chance to play at the NHL level.

On January 4, in his first game with the Hurricanes, McKegg tallied one goal and one assist. The goal he scored put the Hurricanes up 3-0, which ended up being the game winning goal as the Hurricanes beat the Columbus Blue Jackets. He wasted no time contributing to the Canes on the score sheet.

Four days later on January 8, McKegg had another one goal and one assist performance, this time against the New York Islanders. He was showing that he was relishing the opportunity to play at the NHL level again.

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He quickly became a key member on the fourth line of the Hurricanes. McKegg only averaged 10:40 time on ice, but his presence was felt when he was out there on the ice. The Hurricanes depth was on display this year with probably one of the deepest teams in franchise history as McKegg’s call up further shows this. The Canes got scoring contributions from all four lines as goal scoring was normally a premium for the team, it wasn’t this season.

McKegg finished the season with six goals and five assists for 11 points, which were career highs in all three categories. McKegg also had a 51% faceoff win percentage and 30 hits as these are stats to look at in his playoff performance.

In the playoffs, McKegg had 26 hits in 14 games, which signals that he upped his physical game. He also had a 51.1% faceoff win percentage, which is important to note because he was out in double overtime of game seven against the Washington Capitals taking faceoffs and being effective.

In addition, McKegg added two goals in the playoffs for the Hurricanes. One ended up being the eventual game winning goal against the Islanders to send the Hurricanes to the Eastern Conference Finals. He added his second goal in game one of the Eastern Conference Finals, which at the time gave the Canes a 2-1 lead, but the end result didn’t go the Canes way.

Based on what he has proved during his tenure with the Carolina Hurricanes, McKegg deserves another shot to be in the Hurricanes rotation. He proved that he can be an impact player for this team and is a solid depth player.

Question for CC Readers: Do the Carolina Hurricanes need to re-sign Greg McKegg?