Minnesota Wild 6th year center Pat Cannone(12) finally makes his NHL debut at age 30.
In 3 wins, he had no points but 2 shots on net, dished out a pair of hits, had 1 play break up, 1 take away and 2 give aways, while going over 50% on the face off dot skating an average of 10 shifts per game for roughly 8 minutes total ice.
He was returned to AHL affiliate Iowa Wild, where he’s tied for team lead with 12 assists.
In 2015/2016, his third season under contract with St. Louis Blues, he had a career high 20 goals and 53 points for Chicago Wolves, which was good enough for best on the farm squad.
It’s tough to say if he scores another recall while under his one-year contract signed on the opening day of free agency but if he continues to affect the back of the net in the minors, he deserves another shot.
Pat Cannone (12)
St. Louis Blues‘ 5th year center Pat Cannone(12) continues to elevate his play with age.
The 29-year old forward has been a story of chip-chip chip away at it and it will start to come loose.
After two seasons in Ottawa Senators‘ farm system playing for Binghamton Senators, his sophomore campaign didn’t go quite as well on the score sheet as his rookie year did, but he turned a -7 into a tied for 2nd +21 rating.
It wasn’t enough to keep him around for the final year of his contract as he was traded in the off season to St. Louis for future considerations (bag of rocks).
Impressive in his first run with affiliate Chicago Wolves scoring 16 goals and 18 assists and he had a team leading +24 plus/minus.
That was good enough for the parent club to sign him up to a one-year extension and he became an assist captain for the minor league club. He set new personal highs for assists (33 – 1st), points (47 – 2nd) and his +11 was also good enough for 2nd on the squad.
It was in the postseason that he really started setting his current pace though, as he notched 6 assists in 5 Calder Cup Playoffs games.
Given another 1-year contract, he was named captain for 2015/2016 and is on pace to record new best marks in all categories.
In 41 games he has 16 goals, 21 assists with a +14 and he also looks to be shooting the puck on net with way more frequency at 87.
He recently was named MVP for the Central Division in the 2016 AHL All-Star Game getting 3 goals and an assist with a +2 in the victory.
Although he has yet to earn an NHL recall and there are maybe younger prospects ahead of him, he has put in the effort to see what he can do up in the big league.
Pat Cannone(12) Ottawa Senators
Undrafted center Pat Cannone(12) was rewarded by Ottawa Senators for a successful rookie season in what couldn’t have been the easiest season to play with their bottom dragging AHL affiliate in Binghamton.
Originally signed to a 1-year entry level two-way deal, he re-signed for two more and won’t have to worry about a contract through 2013/2014.
The 25-year old 5’11” 197 lbs. forward has shown through his college years that he can acquaint himself with the scoresheet. In 76 games with the B-Sens he scored 19 goals and 24 assists.
He played 2 games last season scoring a goal and an assist and was with the team practicing during their fairytale Calder Cup Championship run but did not appear in any games.
He’s very likely to put up more points next season.