Ottawa Senators signs veterans Mark Parrish and Mike McKenna to one-year, two-way Deals –NHL Update
34-year-old veteran right winger, Mark Parrish, and 28-year-old veteran goalie, Mike McKenna, were signed by Ottawa Senators on Friday to a one-year, two-way contract, each, of which the financial terms and conditions were not disclosed by the club.
Parrish has played nearly 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with various teams like Florida Panthers, New York Islanders, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning and most recently, Buffalo Sabres.
Drafted as the 79th overall pick in round-three of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, Parrish played his highest scoring season in 2001 with Islanders in which he scored 60 points with 30 goals and 30 assists in 78 games.
Since then, the Bloomington, Minnesota, native has been declining performance wise, to the point where he played only two games with Buffalo last season and 16 with Tampa Bay the season prior to that.
According to Ottawa's assistant general manager, Tim Murray, Parrish has renewed himself and wants to make a proper comeback.
“He’s a goal scorer”, Senators' assistant GM, Tim Murray, said of Parrish. “I think I saw last year kind of a renewed commitment to the game from him. He’s an older guy. He got in the gym, got in great shape, he’s as in good a shape now as when we had him
in Florida”.
Mike McKenna, drafted as the 172nd overall in round-six of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by Nashville Predators, played in his first major league season with Tampa Bay Lightning in 2008, in which he appeared in 15 games, winning 4 and losing 8 games
in regulation time with a saves percentage of .887 and goal against average, 3.56.
Last season, McKenna, a 6-foot-3 goalie from St. Louis, Missouri, participated in two games with New Jersey Devils.
He continued to play with New Jersey's American Hockey League (AHL) farm team, Lowell Devils, for the remainder of the season.
Both players have not played in the NHL recently and would like to be given the chance if Ottawa needs them.
According to their two-way contract, they can be used on either team, which is the decision of the team management. If both can prove their value, it would not be surprising to see them play in more games for Ottawa Senators in the NHL than before.
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