7th year left wing Tom Mele(10) finally decided to explore outside of North American minor leagues and wound up over in the United Kingdom with Milton Keynes Lightning.
The decently sized forward has always been able to put up decent numbers and is off to a nice start with 10 goals and 9 assists in 21 EIHL games.
His best scoring seasons in the ECHL were 2014/2015 with Tulsa Oilers.
He played his only AHL games that season on loan to Oklahoma City Barons.
It was in the next round, where he had career high totals skating for Cincinnati Cyclones and Norfolk Admirals to score a combined 27 goals and 25 assists in 74 games.
He’s twice a champion, first with Fort Wayne Komets in their last 2012 Central Hockey League season, then a couple of years later in his 2nd campaign with Alaska Aces to win the 2014 Kelly Cup.
It will be interesting to see what the 31-year old does next but he could very well comeback as he did sign with Wheeling Nailers heading into 2017/2018 before
Tom Mele(10) Alaska Aces
Undrafted rookie right wing Tom Mele(10) skated his first season with Fort Wayne Komets of the Central Hockey League and now his team is looking at a best of 7 finals to claim the Ray Miron President’s Cup trophy.
He also appeared with them in two postseason games last season.
In 12 playoff games he has a pair of goals and an assist.
The 6′ 188 lbs. 25-year old recorded 7 goals and 11 assists in 51 regular season games with a +11 plus/minus.
Before joining the Komets he signed an AHL training camp tryout with Springfield Falcons scoring a goal and making it through their preseason schedule before being released.
His hometown is listed as Bronx, NY, which isn’t exactly a hotbed of hockey talent.
8/31-12 update: For his sophomore season, the forward signs a one-year deal with Alaska Aces, jumping up a notch to the ECHL.
His former team, the Komets are also making the league switch.