Greyhounds announce signings of McCann, Spinozzi

Jared McCann and Kevin Spinozzi are officially members of the Soo Greyhounds.

The two officially signed standard player agreements with the team on Thursday, a day ahead of the opening of the Greyhounds three-day spring development camp.

The pair were introduced at a press conference on Thursday afternoon at the Essar Centre.

“(Getting them signed) meant that they absolutely wanted to be here,” Greyhounds GM Kyle Dubas said in introducing the pair on Thursday afternoon. “In Kevin’s case, his father Frank and his agent got in touch with us shortly after the draft and told us that Kevin wants to be here. With Jared, we had talked to his agent before the draft and it was very quickly thereafter that we were able to get the signing done.”

The agents for both players – Joe Resnick, who represents McCann and Gilles Lupien, who represents Spinozzi – expressed interest after the draft in signing with the Greyhounds.

“Shortly after the draft, both players and their agents reached out to begin the process of signing them,” said Dubas. “It was very easy for both, which is something that doesn’t always happen.

Dubas added that the ease with which the pair signed shows that the stigma that players don’t want to move north to suit up for the Greyhounds is not always there.

“What this does is, there’s a lot of times where people say that kids don’t want to come to the Sault but we’ve got two kids here from very different parts of the province that were very quick to want to become Greyhounds,” said Dubas.

Both players expressed excitement in getting their OHL careers underway this weekend.

What can fans expect from the Greyhounds two newest players?

“I’m a two-way player,” said McCann. “I take pride in both ends of the ice. I care about my defensive game just as much as my offence. That’s really something I focused on and I think I really improved on it.”

Said Spinozzi: “I’m a two-way defenceman and I love to hit. That’s my style of play. Any time I have an opportunity to throw a hit, I will. I played a little more offensively this year in Kingston because we needed a little bit of help there.”

With a roster that featured six 19-year-olds in 2011-12, McCann and Spinozzi will have an opportunity to earn ice time on the 2012-13 team.

“We’ll see at this weekend’s skate (how they might fit in),” said Greyhounds coach Mike Stapleton. “We want them in situations where they can succeed. Time will certainly tell where they’ll fall into place.”

Fans will get their first opportunity to see McCann and Spinozzi in action on the ice when the first scrimmage takes place on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

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