St. Louis Blues’ John McCarthy Sent to San Jose Sharks Minor League Affiliate
In a move that probably doesn’t bode too well for his chances of returning to the NHL this season, St. Louis Blues prospect John McCarthy has been loaned to the Worcester Sharks, the AHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks. As a member of the Sharks organization, McCarthy had spent parts of the past five seasons with Worcester before signing with the Blues this offseason.
McCarthy, who has 87 career NHL games under his belt with the Sharks, had spent the duration of the season to date with the Chicago Wolves, the Blues’ AHL affiliate. McCarthy played in 25 games for Chicago and had put together a rather pedestrian stat line, scoring five goals with three assists and an even plus-minus rating.
While he had remained in the Wolves’ lineup in recent games, McCarthy was going to face a struggle for consistent playing time due to the AHL’s limit on the amount of veterans who can participate in each game. With the Wolves recently having added Blues castoff Magnus Paajarvi and independent free agent Ben Eager, it would have been difficult for Chicago to fit McCarthy into the lineup for every game.
More from St. Louis Blues
- An early projection of the St. Louis Blues’ opening-night roster
- St. Louis Blues sign Klim Kostin to three-year, entry-level contract
- St. Louis Blues: Nail Yakupov signs with Colorado Avalanche
- St. Louis Blues: An homage to Chris Butler
- St. Louis Blues agree to one-year contract with Oskar Sundqvist
Though this move theoretically does give McCarthy a better opportunity to play on the regular, it severely diminishes his chances of playing in the NHL with the Blues. He was recalled for two days at the beginning of January in what coach Ken Hitchcock referred to as an opportunity to see what the organization had in him. McCarthy was sent down on January 2 without ever playing in a game.
Now, at bare minimum, he likely has forward Colin Fraser, who was recalled at the same time as him but played in one game before his demotion, ahead of him. It’s also very possible that Paajarvi and prospect Ty Rattie would be ahead of McCarthy if the Blues needed to recall a forward. Most significantly, now that McCarthy is playing in Worcester rather than with the Blues’ other prospects in Chicago, it becomes much less for the Blues to evaluate his progress on a regular basis.
In exchange for McCarthy, the Wolves received forward Adam Burish, who is a veteran of nine NHL seasons and had played in 20 games with San Jose this season before being waived in late November. In what must be an effort to market to the emotions of the Chicago community, the W0lves have been staging a partial reunion of the Blackhawks’ 2010 Stanley Cup Champion team this year. They were first provided with Fraser, a former Blackhawk, when the Blues signed him to a two-way contract shortly before training camp. Since then, they’ve added Eager and defenseman Brent Sopel as free agents on independent contracts and now have added Burish via trade.