Arizona Coyotes‘ 9th year center Dustin Jeffrey(21) only failed to make an NHL appearance last season and has even earned at least a point in all but one year, and he only made a one game in his second year with first contract team and one he stuck with for 6 campaigns, Pittsburgh Penguins.
In his one game look so far he recorded an assist and was a +2 in a 4-3 overtime win.
The very decent sized, capable of handling his ground 6’2″ 205 lbs. forward had 19 shifts for 14:12 total ice, was 57% effective in the face off circle and even saw 3:17 of power play time.
He’s off to maybe his best ever start scoring 7 goals and 11 assists, good for 5th in the league with new AHL affiliate Springfield Falcons.
With the minutes the 27-year old put in with the parent club on his brief visit, he’ll likely be back up as soon as any of the regulars falls to injury (or slips up).
He was also signed to a one-year two-way deal on the opening day of 2015 free agency, so they wanted him.
Dustin Jeffrey(20) Bridgeport Sound Tigers
7th year center Dustin Jeffrey(20) finds himself switching teams at the trade deadline, becoming part of New York Islanders‘ prospect system from Vancouver Canucks, where he was playing exclusively in minors.
Up until so far this season he has always skated games in the NHL in each campaign of his pro career, mostly with Pittsburgh Penguins, the team that selected him in the 6th round of the 2006 draft (#161 overall).
He played 100 contests through 5+ seasons with them scoring 15 goals and 13 assists before being claimed off the waiver wire by Dallas Stars in early 2013.
The 6’1″ 205 lbs. forward was able to transfer between affiliates and sent to Texas Stars on five different occasions, returned the final time to help their playoff run.
In 254 AHL games he’s a sniper scoring 75 goals and 132 assists with a +51 rating.
He would add 7 goals and 5 assists in 19 postseason contests to help the farm team win the 2014 Calder Cup Championship.
The 27-year old was picked up quickly as an unrestricted free agent and has performed very well with Utica Comets on reassignment registering for almost a point-per-game (17-24 in 49).
Now with his fourth team that takes the bus, Bridgeport Sound Tigers, he has a goal in each of his games plus one assist.
He’s the type of player that really just needs to keep getting chances and shoot the puck on the net.
He could find himself fitting in nicely wherever he lands for the remainder of 2014/2015 and could be retained.