Canisius College Golden Griffins‘ graduate right wing Austin Alger(83) signs a 1st pro deal with Idaho Steelheads as he wraps up his Atlantic Hockey career and 5th year of school.
He originally transferred as a sophomore from one season at Miami University (Ohio) Redhawks.
The 6′ 170 lbs. forward did pretty well scoring in his senior season as assistant captain with 11 goals and 10 assists.
He was voted USHS Michigan Mr. Hockey (Best Michigan High School Player) as a senior captain at Cranbrook Kingswood School.
64 points in 31 USHS-MI games might cinch that award.
The 24-year old from Livonia, MI should be able to light it up in the ECHL with this team.
He scored a 1st goal for the league in 5 games, but doesn’t stay around, instead signing a 1-year deal with Kansas City Mavericks for 2022/2023.
Somehow, he never quite dressed for them, but instead was skating for Fayetteville Marksmen lighting it up to become SPHL Rookie Of The Year.
For 2023/2024, he’s branching out and signs in Finland’s tier 2 league, Mestis, agreeing to terms with IPK.
He blows up scoring in the regular frame, then in the playoffs to earn MVP for the 2024 Championship and will take those stats to the tougher to play SlovakExtraliga, signing with HK Nitra.
4th year Latvian-born defenseman Janis Jaks(72) signs on for a 2nd season to stay with HC Litvinov of Czechia Extraliga for 2023/2024.
The 6’1″ 190 lbs. blue liner played a lot of his youth hockey and beginnings of juniors before coming over to the NAHL with Minnesota Wilderness, where he was twice a +10 player fully grounded in his own zone and helped his team with the 2015 Robertson Cup.
After spending 4 fairly strong sessions at American International College Yellowjackets, he signed with Dinamo Riga, but after 17 KHL games, the relationship soured and he agreed next to Bakersfield Condors and things were looking decent with 2 goals and 4 assists in 20 AHL games with a +3 rating.
He would return to Russia to skate for HK Sochi, but the results didn’t yield much, so he turned his attention to where he is now with much better results, 8 goals, 17 assists in 47 games with a +3 rating to move forward.
The 27-year old has to have at least a little smile on his face to how things are going, especially after winning Bronze at the recent IIHF Worlds.
After 2 strong seasons with the same team, he was in a pretty good spot for himself, but decides to sign with rivals, HC Energie Karlovy Vary.
10th year center Brett Cameron(91) steps down a notch in German hockey to Germany3, signing with Hannover Scorpions for 2024/2025 at 34-years old.
He did well for the last 2 seasons with EV Landshut of DEL2 scoring almost 40 points each session.
The 6’2″ 203 lbs. forward has always consistently scored in the ECHL, 2 years in Norway and 2 in Switzerland.
From Edmonton, AB, he skated 5 seasons at University Of Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves.
We think he will absolutely blow up scoring in the upcoming frame.
13th year center Andrew Rowe(19) has spent the last 4 seasons skating for SC Rapperswill-Jona Lakers of NL, a team he served as team captain of the past 3 sessions.
The 6’2″ 185 lbs. forward started with two season in the SHL for Mora IK upon leaving on his best AHL numbers, 13 goals and 23 assists in 66 games for Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
He has 206 appearances in the league to his credit and 214 in the ECHL with point-per-game numbers.
The 34-year old, former 3-year Michigan State University Spartans is likely happy to still be pulling in good contracts.
After playing hockey for the last 4 years in one away from home country, he has decided to switch things up and head to DEL for his next experience with ERC Ingolstadt in 2023/2024.
He will only spend 1 frame in Germany, as he is maybe unhappy with his performance and makes a great move to skate next in the IceHL and signs with the famous EC Red Bull Salzburg for 2024/2025.
3rd year center Jacob Hayhurst(14) is most definitely off to his quickest star, getting 4 goals and 3 assists in 5 ECHL games for a +6 rating for 9-0 Worcester Railers and already has been loaned up to Springfield Thunderbirds for a pair of AHL appearances.
The undrafted 5’10” 180 lbs. forward had a strong 2nd session, scoring easy bests 15 goals and 33 assists in his 1st season with current club.
He also scored very decently in college, especially as a sophomore and junior at RPI Engineers, when he got 23 points in both frames, but did it a 2nd time in 7 less outings.
For his senior year, he maybe looked to take his game up a bit and transferred to University Of Michigan Wolverines with a decent enough showing.
The 25-year old from Mississauga, ON must be smiling pretty big.
He scored the insurance goal last night to secure his team’s historic season start.
After 10 goals and 12 assists in 25 games last season, he gets a look for 2023/2024 from Coachella Valley Firebirds and we believe this is a player who has played himself up.
He is actually reassigned to affiliate Kansas City Mavericks and blows up regular season and playoff scoring to be a single step away from the league championship, but he will take his game elsewhere for the future, signing with Vasteras IK of HockeyAllsvenskan, where he should absolutely blow up on the stat sheet in Sweden’s tier 2.
EHC Red Bull München‘ 4th year center Ben Smith(12) re-ups after a 3rd 15+ assist season with a monster +61 rating.
It’s the 5’11” 203 lbs. forward’s 15th pro year.
A former Boston College Eagles‘ assistant captain, he twice had 20+ assists in college hockey, yet played no junior hockey after Westminster Prep USHS-Prep.
He was a Chicago Blackhawks‘ 6th round pick in the 2008 draft (#169 overall).
The Winston-Salem, NC native has 237 NHL games experience.
At 35-years old, he seems well happy playing his game in Germany.
St. Lawrence University Saints‘ senior right wing Reilly Moran(17) tied his 8 points he had as a sophomore and new best 6 assists in 34 games with a +1 rating.
The 5’11” 186 lbs. forward from Hingham, MA signs a 1st pro deal as a rookie with Les Diables Rouges de Valenciennes of France2 for 2024/2025.
He played only 1 BCHL season after graduating Thayer Academy.
The 24-year old is bound to do well, where he is going.
Newfoundland Growlers‘ rookie defenseman Jonny Tychonick(81) was actually AHL signed by affiliate Toronto Marlies and returned when the ECHL went belly up right at the end of 2023/2024.
He almost oddly had 1 goal and 1 assist in 3 games, when reassigned down, then added another assist in his reappearance.
From Calgary, AB, he did 2 BCHL seasons with Penticton Vees before heading 1st to University Of North Dakota Fighting Hawks, then 3 years at University Of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks, where he posted a college best 8 goals and 18 assists in his graduate frame.
Ottawa Senators drafted him in the 2nd round of 2018 (#48 overall), but another bit of a head scratcher did not sign him.
The 6′ 172 lbs. blue liner heads off to sign with Djurgardens IF of HockeyAllsvenskan for 2024/2025 and should bang Sweden’s tier 2 league.
14th year center Tyler McNeely(14) steps back to re-join Germany3 for 2024/2025, but will switch allegiances, signing with Bietigheim Steelers, who he played for their DEL2 team earlier career with success for a couple of seasons.
The 5’10” 183 lbs. forward has suited up for 3 different German teams over 12 years of his career.
Undrafted, the former twice captain of Northeastern University Huskies, 1st signed with Bridgeport Sound Tigers (Islanders), but quickly moved on after 2 seasons closer to home, Burnaby, BC.
At 37-years old, he must still be having fun, playing pro hockey.
University Of Vermont Catamounts‘ Kazakhstan-born junior center Andrei Buyalsky(12) decides to leave a year on the table to turn pro, signing for 2024/2025 with Barys Astana of the KHL.
The 6’3″ 194 lbs. forward was a point-per-game USHL player with Dubuque Fighting Saints before school coming over after 4 seasons of Pro Hokei Ligacy at home and 27 games in Russia’s tier 2 VHL, so has quite a little history, hockey journey.
He was a Colorado Avalanche 3rd round pick in 2021 (#92 overall), but they don’t seem to be interested in pursuing him.
We think he finds space and does well in the top Russian league.
