12 year veteran center Rod Pelley(10) switches coasts for his next stop, signing a 1-year deal with Stockton Heat after being a Calgary Flames‘ training camp invite.
He spent the last four seasons as Albany Devils‘ captain keeping him within arms’ reach of New Jersey Devils, the team he initially came up with.
The not exactly big, scrappy forward played almost 4 campaigns exclusively in the NHL skating 256 games as fourth line energy guy.
He’s currently on the books as having skated 491 AHL games, which means he’ll cross that minor league benchmark in the upcoming season.
Never the biggest point-getter, he had 13 points in each of his last three years but it’s likely he’ll be given the “C” for his jersey
When the soon-to-be 34-year old will stop, seems to be entirely up to him.
Rod Pelley(16) Norfolk Admirals
7th year undrafted center Rod Pelley(16) has played the agitator role in the NHL for basically the entirety of his pro career.
He was originally signed by New Jersey Devils skating most of his rookie year with their AHL affiliate Lowell Devils but did get the recall for 8 games with the big club.
By the start of his second season he earned a job in Newark and was well on his way to patrolling the ice full-time as part of the show.
The 5’11” 200 lbs. was dropped back to the minors in his following year without ever getting the call to move back up but was squarely back in the NHL mix from 2009-2011.
He’s never been the type of skaters to add much to the scoresheet but consistently gets in the face of opposing players without costing his team by taking cheap penalties.
An early season trade sent him from the east coast to the west, where he took on the same role with Anaheim Ducks that he had during his entire time with New Jersey.
Looking into 2012/2013, the 28-year old was an unrestricted free agent and with no NHL in site, he signed a pto with the Ducks new farm team, Norfolk Admirals.
In 14 games, he has a pair of assists but has yet to spark a team that is easily better on paper than they are in the standings.