After being released from a training camp tryout by Toronto Marlies, 6th year defenseman, former 1st round draft pick Brandon Gormley(3) took a little time to agree to a one-year deal with Mora IK of the SHL, but now more than 10 games into the new calendar looks to have made a great decision.
He played last season under contract to New Jersey Devils but was reassigned to affiliate Albany Devils before a late season trade sent him to Ottawa Senators minor league squad Binghamton Senators.
The decently sized blue liner put up some outstanding assist numbers in his middle two seasons of junior hockey in the QMJHL and then for his first pair of years in the AHL but those numbers dropped as he was recalled for NHL games.
He’s appeared in 58 contests in the big league scoring 2 goals and 3 assists on a pair of teams that struggled to stitch together wins.
It might be interesting to see what he would do on a better club but that’s looking in the rearview.
Now over in Sweden is likely the 25-year is starting to smile with how things have played out for his career.
Brandon Gormley(46)
4th year defenseman Brandon Gormley(46) would go on to have a relatively good first year scoring 5 goals and 24 assists in 68 AHL games.
In his sophomore campaign he increased in all categories finishing with 7 goals, 29 assists and 38 points in less games at 54 played but did have a pretty bad -22 rating.
He did however receive his first pair of recalls and 5 games in the big league near the end of the 2013/2014 season. Although he didn’t managed to get any points he was a +4 plus/minus.
Heading into the final year of his entry level deal he would split time between leagues almost evenly with a slight edge towards minutes with the parent club.
In 27 games he produced his first 2 NHL goals and 2 assists. He had a -7 rating but that might be tough to blame on such a rebuilding team.
Recalled on three occasions he basically finished off the regular season with the team before being sent back to Portland Pirates to help them with their postseason push, and he did scoring one goal and 4 assists going to a deciding fifth game of the first round before their exit.
A restricted free agent heading into 2015/2016, the now 23-year old accepted his qualifying offer, a 2-way deal to prove he has what it takes to stick.
Later in the season, the fourth year d-man was traded in a swap of relatively high draft picks to Colorado Avalanche and just may find life on their blue line.
Brandon Gormley (36)
Arizona Coyotes‘ 1st round pick in the 2010 draft (#13 overall) defenseman Brandon Gormley(36) was probably always headed for at least a year in the minor leagues but has already established a winning pedigree working his way up to pro status.
The rookie is signed for the next three-years on an entry level contract.
In 10 games with Portland Pirates he notched his first career goal and added 3 assists.
The 20-year old is fairly big already at 6’2″ but will probably have to add to his 196 lbs. count, unless he becomes mostly known as an offensive play-maker.
Then they’ll just hope his accountable enough in his own zone to avoid being a minus player.
He already knows what it’s like to be on either side of the math, so it looks to be more of a matter of time to see what develops.