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Mark Arcobello In, Brandon McMillan Out

By Catherine Silverman

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Mark Arcobello was claimed off waivers, and now Brandon McMillan is headed out

Back when Mark Arcobello was placed on waivers by the Nashville Predators the first time around, I aggressively campaigned for Arizona to pick him up.

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Undrafted at any level of professional hockey, Arcobello has a prospect report from his AHL days that says explicitly — his size, combined with his initial struggles on the defensive end of the game, made him an unlikely candidate to ever break into the NHL.

Imagine everyone’s surprise, therefore, when he not only broke the NHL — but did it as a member of the Edmonton Oilers.

Mark Arcobello is the Edmonton Oilers GM Craig MacTavish’s worst nightmare — an undrafted, undersized player with a low prospective talent ceiling, who managed to outperform some of his best and brightest. Here’s a tidbit I found about the center while trolling the interwebz yesterday, looking for reasons the Coyotes picking him up was a smart call:

Plus-minus is a stat that has to be used correctly and sparingly, but this is a good indicator that Arcobello is — at the very least — a flexible forward who manages to maintain solid defense as well as he produces offense.

Will he get these kinds of minutes in Arizona? Probably not — at least, not immediately. He could be doing some heavy lifting for a bit, though:

The Coyotes placed McMillan on waivers for the second time this season after the league announced that they had won the claim for Arcobello — and although the two don’t play the same position (McMillan is a winger, Arcobello is a natural center who can shift to the wing when needed), it’s likely that the team brought Arcobello on to fill in for him in the lineup.

What are the pluses to having Arcobello in the lineup?

– With a good defensive presence — he’s a self-proclaimed two way player (and Edmonton let him go. I know), and is known for liking to lay a good hit or two — he could fill in for McMillan on the penalty kill.

-He’s a natural center, so he can fill in for Joe Vitale and/or Martin Hanzal for now, then prove useful if the team chooses to deal Antoine Vermette

-As far as bottom six players go, he’s able to produce decent offense. He’s put up fifteen points in his last fifty games, better than nearly all of Arizona’s bottom six — and he’s proven in both Pittsburgh and Edmonton that he’s able to drive the play when on a top line, if needed. His assist on the Evgeni Malkin goal against Edmonton was an absolute beauty.

Of course, losing McMillan loses one of the team’s best defensive possession players — although he played limited minutes for the team and had trouble scoring this season, Brandon McMillan’s takeaway percentage was 97 percent when Howlin’ Hockey calculated it just a few weeks ago. That’s a huge defensive loss to the team as he skates off to Vancouver.

Now that Arcobello is up, it’s possible that the team will reassign Alexandre Bolduc — and who knows? The team could potentially call up Henrik Samuelsson or Justin Hodgman.

Happy Thursday, Coyotes fans.

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