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Brodeur Named Reebok/AHL Player Of The Week

December 17, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The American Hockey League announced that former ECHL and current Rochester goaltender Mike Brodeur has been named the Reebok/AHL Player of the Week for the period ending Dec. 14.

Brodeur was 3-2-0 with a shutout, a goals-against average of 1.39 and a save percentage of .949 as the Americans played five games in six days.

It is the second week in a row that the award has been won by a former ECHL goaltender as Josh Tordjman, who played for the Phoenix RoadRunners as a rookie, was the winner for the period ending Dec. 7.

Selected by Chicago in the seventh round (211th overall) in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, the 25 year old is 48-38-9 with seven shutouts, a goals-against average of 2.69 and a save percentage of .922 in 100 regular season ECHL games with Augusta, Greenville, Pensacola and Toledo.

During the 2007-08 season Brodeur had a 10-day stretch where he played three games in the ECHL with Pensacola in three different cities, was with Rockford in the AHL for one game and suited up for one game with the Chicago Blackhawks as the backup to Patrick Lalime, who played in the ECHL as a rookie in 1994-95.

Other former ECHL players nominated for the award were Barry Brust, Michel Ouellet, Jordan Owens, Martin St. Pierre, Jamie Tardif, Josh Tordjman and Tyler Weiman.

The ECHL has had affiliations with 20 or more teams in the AHL the last eight years and in the past seven seasons there have been more ECHL players called up to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined.

For the 19th year in a row the Premier ‘AA' Hockey League was represented on the AHL champion as the Chicago Wolves had a record 14 former ECHL players on their roster.

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 Peter Laviolette in 1999.

Five former ECHL players have been named Reebok/AHL Player of the Week this season: former Florida Everblades center Keith Aucoin for period ending Oct. 12, former Stockton Thunder and 2007 ECHL All-Star goaltender Devan Dubnyk for the period ending Nov. 16, former Gwinnett Gladiator and 2006 ECHL All-Star left wing Pascal Pelletier for the period ending Nov. 30, former Phoenix RoadRunners goaltender Josh Tordjman for the period ending Dec. 7, and former ECHL goaltender Mike Brodeur for the period ending Dec. 14.

Ten former ECHL players won the weekly award in 2007-08 while former ECHL players were chosen to receive the Rbk X-Pulse/AHL Goaltender of the Month four times, the CCM/AHL Player of the Month award three times and the Rbk Edge/AHL Rookie of the Month two times.. The ECHL was represented by three players on both the First Team All-AHL and the Second Team All-AHL while goaltender John Curry was named to the All-Rookie Team and Andrew Hutchinson was named Defenseman of the Year.

Barry Brust and Nolan Schaefer won the Harry "Hap" Holmes Memorial Award, presented each season to the goaltender(s) appearing in at least 25 games for the team allowing the fewest goals, for 2007-08. It is the seventh season in a row and the 12th time in the last 15 years that the award has been won or shared by a former ECHL goaltender.

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Premier ‘AA' Hockey League Fast Facts

- The ECHL celebrated its 20th Anniversary in 2007-08 and is 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 with 22 teams in 16 states and British Columbia in 2008-09.

- The Reading Royals, the City of Reading and the Sovereign Center will host the 17th Annual ECHL All-Star Game on Jan. 21, 2009 and the 12th Annual All-Star Skills Competition on Jan. 20, 2009.

- The league officially changed its name from East Coast Hockey League to ECHL on May 19, 2003.

- Affiliations with 24 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League marking 12th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.

- 382 former ECHL players have played in NHL.

- 126 have played their first NHL game in the last four seasons.

- 27 former ECHL players have made their NHL debut this season: former Wheeling Nailers and ECHL All-Star defenseman Paul Bissonnette (Pittsburgh on Oct. 4), former Bakersfield Condors center Alexandre Bolduc (Vancouver on Nov. 27), former Florida Everblades defenseman Brett Carson (Carolina on Dec. 7), former South Carolina Stingrays defenseman Sean Collins (Washington on Dec. 6), former Las Vegas Wranglers and Wheeling Nailers goaltender John Curry (Pittsburgh on Nov. 26), former Greenville Grrrowl goaltender Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers (Edmonton on Oct. 17), former Johnstown Chiefs center Andre Deveaux (Toronto on Nov. 27), former Dayton Bombers center Philippe Dupuis (Colorado on Dec. 12), former Gwinnett Gladiators right wing Pat Dwyer former Columbus Cottonmouths and Tallahassee Tiger Sharks left wing Mitch Fritz (New York Islanders on Oct. 30), former Charlotte Checkers center Dwight Helminen (Carolina on Oct. 28), former Trenton Devils right wing Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (New Jersey on Oct. 22), former Charlotte Checkers defenseman Steve MacIntyre (Edmonton on Oct. 15), former Florida Everblades left wing Kenndal McArdle (Florida on Dec. 2), former Phoenix RoadRunners and Wheeling Nailers center Cam Paddock (St. Louis on Nov. 14), former Las Vegas Wranglers defenseman Adam Pardy (Calgary on Oct. 9), former Idaho Steelheads left wing Warren Peters (Calgary on Dec. 7), former Charlotte Checkers defenseman Corey Potter (New York Rangers on Dec. 7), former Charlotte Checkers, Columbia Inferno and Elmira Jackals defenseman Bryan Rodney (Carolina on Dec. 11), former Gwinnett Gladiators center Jared Ross (Philadelphia on Oct. 11), former Alaska Aces goaltender Marek Schwarz (St. Louis on Oct. 25), former Greenville Grrrowl and Stockton Thunder center Tim Sestito (Edmonton on Nov. 26), former Dayton Bombers and Las Vegas Wranglers defenseman Tyler Sloan (Washington on Oct. 21), former Johnstown Chiefs and Mississippi Sea Wolves forward Radek Smolenak (Tampa Bay on Dec. 2), former Augusta Lynx defenseman Brett Skinner (New York Islanders on Oct. 27), former Wheeling Nailers right wing Tim Wallace (Pittsburgh on Dec. 10) and former Idaho Steelheads center Tom Wandell (Dallas on Dec. 10).

- There were 72 former ECHL players on NHL opening-day rosters.

- Twenty-six former ECHL players made their NHL debut in 2007-08 including six who played in both the ECHL and the NHL: Chris Beckford-Tseu (Alaska and St. Louis), Adam Berti (Pensacola and Chicago), Joe Jensen (Wheeling and Carolina), Dan LaCosta (Elmira and Columbus), Jonathan Quick (Reading and Los Angeles) and Danny Taylor (Reading and Los Angeles).

- Record 47 former ECHL players played their first NHL game in 2005-06.

- ECHL is represented for the eighth consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team in 2008 by Aaron Downey of the Detroit Red Wings.

- Former ECHL coaches working as head coaches in the NHL are Bruce Boudreau of the Washington Capitals and Scott Gordon of the New York Islanders. Boudreau, who coached Mississippi for three seasons winning the Kelly Cup championship in 1999, was named NHL Coach of the Year in 2007-08 becoming the first former ECHL coach to receive the award. Peter Laviolette, who began his coaching career with the Wheeling Nailers, led Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup in 2006.

- There are 18 assistant coaches in the NHL who were players or coaches in the ECHL.

- There are 18 former ECHL officials scheduled to work as part of the NHL officiating team in 2008-09 with referees David Banfield, Chris Ciamaga, Ghislain Hebert, Marc Joannette, Mike Leggo, Wes McCauley, Dean Morton, Dan O'Rourke, Brian Pochmara, Kevin Pollock, Kyle Rehman, Chris Rooney, Justin St. Pierre and Ian Walsh and linesmen Steve Barton, Brian Mach, Tim Nowak and Jay Sharrers. Barton, Joannette, Leggo, McCauley, Nowak, Pollock, Rooney and Sharrers all worked the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

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

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