EIHL | CollegeHockeyPlayers

18Dec

Paul Bissonnette(15) Manchester Monarchs

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10th year veteran left wing Paul Bissonnette(15) for the first time in five years found himself on the outside as an unrestricted free agent after five seasons under contract with Arizona Coyotes.

Definitely a character guy out there for a team, he scored himself an invite to tryout with St. Louis Blues‘ training camp. He was released as the season was about to begin.

He was first rumored to sign with Cardiff Devils but then pulled the switch and inked a pto to join the Coyotes‘ farm club Portland Pirates.

The 6’3″ 220 lbs. forward is well known for putting his nose in the middle of trouble but in recent years has seemed to shy away from it mostly averaging only 50 minutes a season in the box and has fought only occasionally in the last three years.

Maybe his little goal scorer spree in the EIHL (6 goals, 11 assists in 15 games), while the NHL was on lockout, made him think of his game differently. He has 202 games in the big league to his credit and almost surprisingly is the proud owner of a +7 rating.

He was released from his tryout with Portland and the next day Manchester Monarchs chose to sign him.

He’s used very sparingly on a fourth line and seems mostly to be there to give the younger players a guy with some toughness and leadership to feed off.

The 29-year old was originally a Pittsburgh Penguins‘ 4th round pick in the 2003 draft (#121 overall) and played in their system for four years.

10Nov

Kevin Westgarth(15) Belfast Giants

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Undrafted 8th year right wing Kevin Westgarth(15) found no takers for his gritty game in the NHL so he has decided to join storied English hockey franchise Belfast Giants for the 2014/2015 campaign.

The exceedingly large 6’4″ 234 lbs. forward was invited to Edmonton Oilers‘ training camp before being released right before the start of the new season.

He last played a full year with Calgary Flames and seemed to enjoy it as a most productive landing spot in 2013/2014 scoring a career high 4 goals and 3 assists in 36 games.

His last stint four+ years ago in the AHL with Manchester Monarchs he showed signs of converting his fists into scoring chances landing 11 goals and 14 assists in 76 games.

The now 30-year old is off to a hot start getting a pair of goals in his first two appearances and of course, already has one fighting major penalty too.

He should be a point per game kind of player in this league.

It remains to be seen if good play away from home for a season will get anyone interested in paying for his services to return.

30Jul

Joel Champagne(24) Braehead Clan

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In somewhat of an interesting pro hockey move, third year center Joel Champagne(24) signs to play with Braehead Clan of the EIHL for 2013/2014.

He won the Kelly Cup Championship last season with Reading Royals, playing pretty much all of the regular season and playoff games on reassignment from Hershey Bears. Technically he was signed to an AHL contract last season but never recalled. His ECHL numbers were decent: 18+31=49 points and then put up another 3 goals and 5 assists in 21 postseason match ups.

The 6’4″ 217 lbs. XL forward was originally a Toronto Maple Leafs‘ 5th round pick in the 2008 draft (#129 overall) but signed his first deal with Milwaukee Admirals. He had 6 goals and 6 assists in 55 games with a +4 rating. He also played a 6 games with their affiliate Cincinnati Cyclones and put up 5 goals and 3 assists.

It’s maybe just that the 23-year has yet to find his place to show his abilities but as a more than a point per game player in his final three years of juniors in the QMJHL, he’s definitely shown the ability to connect and should be able to light the lamp like crazy in the English pro league.

27Jul

Matt Reber(10) Fife Flyers

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Undrafted 3rd year center Matt Reber(10) has decided it’s time to take his game overseas after making it to the 2013 Kelly Cup Finals with Stockton Thunder.

The 6’2″ 185 lbs. forward spent a year and a half with the team after being traded half way through the 2011/2012 season by Utah Grizzlies, where he signed after completing four years of college hockey at Dartmouth. He connected big out of the gate in his first pro postseason visit with 3 goals and 7 assists in 8 games.

He settled down some in his pair of minor league seasons, scoring 20 goals and 52 assists in 122 ECHL games.

The 26-year old signed a one year deal to join Fife Flyers of the EIHL for 2013/2014.

It’s seems likely that he detonates the score sheet in the English hockey league.

27Jan

Anthony Stewart(21) Manchester Monarchs

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Former Florida Panthers‘ 1st round pick in the 2003 draft (#25 overall), right wing Anthony Stewart(21) was one of the NHL signed players to head overseas during the lockout. He somewhat ironically inked with Nottingham Panthers of the EIHL and scored 6 goals and 5 assists in 19 games.

He has played 262 (27 goals and 44 assists) NHL games with the Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers and Carolina Hurricanes. The latter team dished him and his $1M contract to Los Angeles Kings in favor of a tough guy.

With little space in their front line, the Kings reassigned the 6’2″ 230 lbs. winger to their AHL affiliate Manchester Monarchs, a league he hadn’t been in since 2010, but has 42 goals and 56 assists in throughout his 8-year pro career

In 3 games, he posted a goal and two fighting majors but appears a bit disinterested out there, although that could just be his style of play.

At 28-years old it’s a bit of a wonder where the power forward will land next.

15Jul

Jon Landry(7) New York Islanders

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It would be easy to have a case of mistaken identity in this roster move: defenseman Jon Landry(7), who last year played with Bridgeport Sound Tigers for 34 games on call-up and scored 2 goals and 18 assists, while going a +11 plus/minus is not to be confused with Jon (now) A. Landry, who played for Bridgeport in 2011 but didn’t skate last season.

This Jon Landry, like the other one though, was called up from the ECHL, where he was under contract with Colorado Eagles. The 6’3″ 220 lbs. d-man had 12 goals and 18 assists when unknowingly he left for good.

The couple seasons before that he played in the EIHL for a year and parts of one in Germany’s DEL. Mostly though, he was sort of hiding as an undrafted player in the Central Hockey League with Arizona Sundogs for his first 4 seasons since turning pro.

He did manage to win a President’s Cup Trophy as the top team in the league in his second campaign in.

Now the 29-year old seemingly out of nowhere signed his first one-year, two-way NHL contract with New York Islanders and will likely see more time in Bridgeport to continue to confuse everyone. Until he makes his NHL debut that is.