McGinn following in brothers’ footsteps
The 2012 NHL Entry Draft gets underway on June 22nd at the CONSOL Energy Centre in Pittsburgh. The Guelph Storm have a CHL best eight players in the NHL Central Scouting rankings including Matt Finn, Scott Kosmachuk, Tanner Richard, Brock McGinn, Justin Auger, Zack Mitchell, Patrick Watling and Zach Leslie.
By Adam Kimelman – NHL.com Deputy Managing Editor – Guelph Storm forward Brock McGinn comes across his toughness the old-fashioned way — he earned it.
You have to be tough when you’re the youngest of three hockey-playing brothers.
McGinn’s oldest brother, Jamie, 23, just finished his fourth NHL season. Middle brother Tye, 21, was a 2010 fourth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers who spent his first professional season in 2011-12 with the team’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Adirondack Phantoms.
And then there’s Brock, at 18, the youngest, and at 5-foot-11 and 174 pounds, the smallest of the bunch.
“It was always a great time just going out there, us three, working on our stuff, the banks on the side so we could hit each other into,” Brock told NHL.com. “That was always fun. Definitely a great time growing up with them.”
Mom Cori was the yearly maker of the backyard rink at the family home in Fergus, Ont., and remembers some hellacious battles.
“Oh yes, there were a few times they went head-first into the snow bank,” she told NHL.com. “They were very competitive. Brock took a lot of abuse from Jamie and Tye, but he held his own. He didn’t back down at all.”
That mean streak has served him well, including in an injury-plagued season with the Storm in 2011-12. He was limited to just 33 games due to an injured left hand that required surgery twice. He said he broke the scaphoid bone his left hand in October, but the fracture wasn’t discovered until an MRI in December. He had surgery just before Christmas and missed nearly three months. He returned in February and played through the Storm’s first-round OHL playoff loss, but never felt 100 percent. He had surgery again right after the Scouting Combine in May, with a bone from his hip being used to help in the healing process, which he said should take 2-4 months.
Despite the injury, Guelph assistant coach Chris Hajt told NHL.com McGinn was able to showcase the strengths of his game.
“He fought through some injuries and was a warrior,” he said. “He’ll do anything for the team to win. For him to go through what he went through and play as well as he did, it’s a feather in his cap.”
