Leafs sign Jay McClement, re-sign Frattin

by Mislav Jantoljak on July 1, 2012 in Signings (Free Agency) - 1,383 Comments

Photo: blues.nhl.com

The Leafs have signed Jay McClement to a 2-year, $3-million (1.5 mil. per) contract. McClement is a 29-year-old centerman from Kingston, Ontario (that one’s for you, Don Cherry). A left handed shooter, he stands 6 ft 1 in tall and weighs in at 205 lbs.

He is your prototypical shutdown centerman with little offense. But what he does, he does well.

A guy with good faceoff numbers, McClement is a player who is more mobile than Steckel, excels on the penalty kill and has decent size.

Viewed as a sturdy player, McClement has played 80 or more games in the past 6 seasons. A guy who can move the puck up ice (34.3% o-zone starts, 47.5% o-zone finish in 2012), Jay led Colorado in total shorthanded ice time, averaging 3:06 per game.

In another favourable possession stat, McClement’s takeaway to giveaway ratio was better than 2:1. He’s considered to be a relatively clean player, posting just 31 PIM last year, his biggest total in 5 seasons. (credit to our very own @MLHS_Mike for some very quick research).

All in all, a pretty safe contract for a defensive center who could turn out to be very helpful. If he can bring those type of numbers to the table in Toronto, it’s a pretty good deal for a player who takes up just 1/47th of the total cap.

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In other news, the Leafs re-signed RFA forward Matt Frattin for two-years (850k per season) on a one way contract, Marlies goaltender Jussi Rynnas and captain Ryan Hamilton to one year 2-way deals.

Frattin had a blazing hot Marlie playoff campaign stopped short by a knee injury that required surgery. He may not be ready in time for the start of the season, and if he is, he can’t be expected to be firing on all cylinders; patience will be required.

The Leafs’ remaining RFAs include Nikolai Kulemin, Cody Franson, Simon Gysbers, Korbinian Holzer, Marcel Mueller, Ben Scrivens and Mark Fraser.

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