The three-year deal will start next season – ideally for McCue, the Knights will capture the OHL and perhaps the Memorial Cup by then – and in the meantime, he’s starting to learn what it means to be a Blue Jacket.
McCue (6-1, 183) is familiar with such players as Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli, top prospects in their own right, but he still admits he has a lot to take in considering how quickly the deal with Columbus came together.
“I was sitting in my basement one night – I think I was watching hockey, honestly – and my agent called me and said Columbus is looking to sign you and they offered you a deal,” he said. “I FaceTimed my parents and told them about it. My dad was really happy, and my mom. They were really excited about the opportunity, and my agent said he thought it was gonna be a good fit. They like my game and they stepped up and offered a contract, so I obviously made the decision to sign.”
McCue describes himself as a player who does whatever it takes to win, whether it be scoring a goal, making a big hit or even dropping the gloves. The stats back that up, as the 21-year-old center/wing is in the midst of a season that includes career highs of 26 goals, 29 assists, 55 points, a plus-23 rating, 108 penalty minutes, seven power-play markers and eight game-winning tallies.
If you talk about filling up the stat sheet, that’s what he’s done, and McCue said he models his game after such gritty players as Toronto’s Tyler Bertuzzi and Boston’s Trent Frederic.
“I think I’m just a hard-working, two-way player who can play in all three zones of the ice,” he said. “If we’re down a goal late, I like to be out there. If we’re up a goal, I like to be out there as well. I’m just a guy (head coach Dale Hunter) can trust to throw out in any situation, likes to compete, get to the front of the net, hit guys, fight if I have to, score some goals. Just doing anything that you can to help the team win.”
To learn more about McCue, including his hobbies off the ice, listen to the full Pipeline Podcast presented by Ruoff Mortgage.
Monsters Stem Short Losing Skid
It’s been a bit of a tough time to be a Cleveland Monster of late. The AHL affiliate of the Blue Jackets did get some reinforcements at the trade deadline in defenseman Jakub Zboril and goalie Malcolm Subban, but injuries and other moves at the NHL level have meant three of the team’s top four scorers – Trey Fix-Wolansky, Carson Meyer and Brendan Gaunce – are now up with the Blue Jackets.
That might have made an impact, then, over the weekend when the Monsters dropped a pair of games at Laval. But with Zboril in the lineup and Subban dressed last night, Cleveland rebounded to take a 3-2 overtime win over Grand Rapids at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
That win moved Cleveland two points ahead of Syracuse – which has won five in a row – atop the AHL North Division standings, though the Crunch has a pair of games in hand. Cleveland is now 34-18-3-3 with 14 games to go in the regular season.
Hunter McKown had the overtime winner for the Monsters last night and also assisted on both earlier goals tallied by Marcus Bjork and Tyler Angle. Jet Greaves made 32 saves in the Cleveland net to notch his AHL-leading 26th victory of the season.
Cleveland plays its next four games at home as it tries to zero in on a division championship. The Monsters host Wilkes-Barre Scranton on Sunday and Monday before welcoming league-leading Hershey to town for a pair of games next Friday and Saturday.
Almost Tourney Time
The next time we do a Prospect Report, we’ll know the CBJ prospects that are taking part in the NCAA tournament. In the meantime, though, the Blue Jackets draftees that are in college hockey are in the best time of the year, tourney time, as conferences are going through their tournaments to pare down the field to the 16 teams that will compete for an NCAA crown.
The good news for the Blue Jackets prospects is that all four – Michigan forward Gavin Brindley, Wisconsin forward William Whitelaw, Providence defenseman Guillaume Richard and Boston College defenseman Aidan Hreschuk – are on teams that currently appear to be on the right side of the NCAA bubble.
Boston College currently holds the No. 1 ranking in the Pairwise rankings that determine the NCAA field, so it’s fair to say the Eagles are a lock to make the tournament. Wisconsin appears solidly in as well at No. 9, though the Badgers were upset by Ohio State in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament this past weekend. Michigan had little trouble dispatching Notre Dame in the opening round and now appears firmly in the NCAA field at 10th in the Pairwise, while Providence is holding on for dear life at No. 14 as it opens Hockey East tournament play this weekend vs. UMass.
Brindley is one of eight players in college hockey up to 50 points on the season thanks to a goal and three assists in the two-game sweep of Notre Dame. The 2023 second-round draft pick has a 23-27-50 line on the season – the 23 goals on the year are tied for seventh in the country – and has been red-hot of late, posting 3-5-8 in the last three games and an 8-12-20 mark in the last 11.
Whitelaw and the Badgers went down in three games to Ohio State, and going into the NCAA tournament, the freshman who was a third-round pick in the 2023 draft has a 10-7-17 line in 36 games.
Boston College is 28-5-1 and won the Hockey East regular season title, and now the Eagles begin tournament play Saturday against a quarterfinal opponent to be known tonight. Hreschuk, a junior who was taken in the third round of the 2021 draft, has a 2-12-14 line in 34 games.
Richard is a junior who was taken in the fourth round of the 2021 draft by the Blue Jackets. He has a career-high 17 points (3-14-17) in 34 games this year.
Prospect Notes
- It was a short time in the KHL playoffs for CBJ draft picks Nikolai Makarov and Kirill Dolzenkhov. CSKA Moscow lost its opening round series to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl by a 4-1 margin, ending the season for players with CBJ ties in Russia. Dolzhenkov (2022 fourth-round pick) and Makarov (2021 fifth-round pick) each played in all five games for the defending champs, so there will be a new winner in the KHL.
- As the OHL season nears its end, 2023 fourth-round pick Luca Pinelli is up to 44 goals on the season after scoring last night for Ottawa. Pinelli remains third in the league on the season in goal scoring.
