5th year right wing Ben Hanowski(28) likely picked up a nice deal for 2017/2018 with Kolner Haie of DEL after a two season of 20+ goals with Augsburger Panther.
Originally a Pittsburgh Penguins‘ 3rd round pick in the 2009 draft (#63 overall), he was traded before ever lacing them up to Calgary Flames as he was finishing up his four years at St. Cloud State University.
He spent his junior and senior campaigns as team captain and earlier in his hockey ascension became Minnesota High Schools all-time leading scorer at Little Falls.
The 6’2″ 210 lbs. power forward played his first five games after finishing up college in the big league and even potted a first NHL goal in his debut.
In the following year he played a career high 11 games in the last month of the calendar recording 2 assists but seemed to drop from the depth chart despite receiving a contract extension heading into 2014/2015.
Through 56 AHL games with affiliate Adirondack Flames he picked up a new minor league best 16 goals with a +3 rating but it wasn’t enough to keep him around making him an unrestricted free agent.
He agreed to his first deal overseas as 2015/2016 was set to begin.
The 26-year old may have found a great home in the top German league and it would be little surprise to see him continue playing here for a long while.