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AHL Winner Has Record 14 Former ECHL Players

Published on June 13, 2008 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - For the 19th year in a row the Premier 'AA' Hockey League is represented on the American Hockey League champion as the Chicago Wolves have a record 14 former ECHL players on their roster.

There have been 45 former ECHL players on the last four AHL winners including the previous high of 12 for Hamilton in 2007.

The Wolves, who beat Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 5-2 on Tuesday to win the series in six games, have seven players who played in the ECHL this season. Matt Anderson, Chad Denny, Guillaume Desbiens, Mike Hamilton, Craig Kowalski, Scott Lehman and Tomas Pospisil all played for the Gwinnett Gladiators, who are Chicago's ECHL affiliate.

The other Chicago players with ECHL experience are Andre Deveaux (Johnstown, 2005-07), Kevin Doell (Gwinnett, 2003-05), Brian Fahey (Atlantic City, 2003-05 and Idaho, 2005-06), Robert Gherson (Columbia, 2005-07), Jesse Schultz (Columbia, 2003-04), Brian Sipotz (Gwinnett, 2004-05) and Colin Stuart (Gwinnett, 2004-05).

The ECHL was represented by 165 players, five head coaches and eight assistant coaches in the AHL playoffs and each of the 16 teams had at least six players on their roster led by Hartford with 17 players and Albany and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with 16 players each.

The ECHL had affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the AHL in 2007-08, marking the seventh consecutive season that it has had affiliations with 20 or more teams. In the last six seasons the ECHL has had more call ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with over 2,300 call ups involving more than 1,200 players. In each of the last three seasons there have been more than 225 players who have played in both the ECHL and the AHL in the same season. In 2007-08 in the AHL there were 10 former ECHL coaches who were head coaches, 14 others were assistant coaches and 500 players with ECHL experience.

Seven times in the last eight years the winner of the AHL Coach of the Year award has been a former ECHL coach including the last three selections with Scott Gordon, Mike Haviland and Kevin Dineen. Former ECHL coaches won the award four consecutive years from 2001-04 with Don Granato, Bruce Cassidy, Geoff Ward and Claude Noel. The first former ECHL coach to win the award was current Carolina Hurricanes head coach Peter Laviolette in 1999.

Former Toledo defenseman Andrew Hutchinson was named as the outstanding defenseman for 2007-08 while former Reading goaltender Barry Brust and former Fresno goaltender Nolan Schaefer won the award for fewest goals allowed.

Former Toledo defenseman Andrew Hutchinson, former Jackson defenseman Lawrence Nycholat and former Louisiana and Gwinnett left wing Pascal Pelletier were named to the First Team All-AHL and former Toledo goaltender Drew MacIntyre, former Greenville center Martin St. Pierre and former Augusta right wing Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau were selected to the Second Team All-AHL.

Former ECHL players won the CCM/AHL Player of the Month award in November (Martin St. Pierre), December (Pascal Pelletier) and January (Grant Stevenson). Trevor Smith, who played in the ECHL with Utah this season, was the Rbk Edge/AHL Rookie of the Month for January while John Curry, who played this year for both Las Vegas and Wheeling, was the winner in December. The Rbk Hockey/AHL Player of the Week award was won eight times by former ECHL players.

ECHL
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2007-08, the ECHL is the Premier 'AA' Hockey League and the third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League.

ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league that will play with 24 teams in 16 states and British Columbia in 2008-09.

The league officially changed its name to ECHL on May 19, 2003.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the NHL in 2007-08, marking the 11th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.

There have been 355 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including 99 in the last three seasons. There have been 210 former ECHL players who have played their first game in the NHL in the past seven seasons.

There are 15 coaches in the NHL who have ECHL experience including former Mississippi and current Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, who is the 2007-08 winner of the NHL Coach of the Year award, and former Wheeling coach Peter Laviolette, who is head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes.

The ECHL is represented for the eighth consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team in 2008 with Detroit Red Wings forward Aaron Downey.

Further information on the ECHL is available from its website at ECHL.com.

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