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Evansville IceMen Sign Assistant Coach & Announce Season Ending Roster

June 16, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Evansville IceMen News Release


Evansville, IN - Head Coach Al Sims and the Evansville IceMen, presented by Coors Light, today announced the hiring of Johan Lundskog as the team's new Assistant Coach for the upcoming 2015-16 ECHL season which begins at home on Saturday, October 17th at the Ford Center.

Lundskog, 30 years of age, is a native Visby, Sweden. This past season Johan was the Assistant Coach for Oskarshamn IK; a top professional club in the Swedish Allsvenskan Hockey League. Prior to last season, Johan had been the face of the Bradford Rattlers of the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League located in Ontario and Quebec since the organization joined the GMHL in 2006. From 2006-2008 Lundskog was an Assistant Coach, before taking over the Head Coaching/GM duties in 2009. He remained the Head Coach and General Manager through the 2013-2014 season, building the Rattlers into one of the premier GMHL franchises. Under Lundskog, the Rattlers were able to achieve the best winning percentage out of any Junior A team in the province. During his time in Bradford the team notched a 271-45-21 record. This included three regular season titles, three Russell Cup Championships and an undefeated perfect season in 2012-13. In addition, Johan personally holds GMHL records for: most games behind the bench, most wins as Head Coach, most Russell Cup Championships and most Regular Season Titles. He is a two-time GMHL coach of the year, winning it in 2010-11 and 2012-13. Johan played a major role building the GMHL and Rattlers into the successful organizations you see today. He recruited some of the league's most talented players and helped hundreds advance to the NCAA and professional ranks.

In addition, the IceMen have announced their twenty-man season ending roster which includes three goaltenders, nine defensemen, and eight forwards:

Goaltenders: Cal Heeter, Branden Komm, and Alex Vazzano.

Defensemen: Mike Banwell, Cameron Burt, Donnie Harris, Spencer Humphries, Zach McCullough, Chris Rumble, Kyle Shapiro, Brandon Martell, and Dan Sova.

Forwards: Mark Anthoine, Andre Bouvet-Morrissette, Patrick Cullen, Kyle Just, Jarret Lukin, Justin MacDonald, Robin Soudek, Joe Zarbo.

Defensemen Banwell, Burt, and McCullough along with forwards Cullen and Just come to the IceMen roster following the recent completion of future considerations trades by Head Coach Al Sims.

Mike Banwell, 27, from Scarborough, Ontario comes to the Evansville roster to complete the earlier trade of Thomas Frazee to the Greenville Road Warriors. A 6'-2", 190 lbs. defenseman played in 51 games for Greenville last season scoring 14 points (1 goal & 13 assists). He's a solid stay at home defenseman who previously played for Reading & Trenton in the ECHL and Albany, Worcester, Springfield, and Bridgeport in the American Hockey League.

Cameron Burt, 27, is a native of Detroit, Michigan. Cameron is another solid defenseman who played for the Florida Everblades last year and completes the earlier trade which sent Ray Kaunisto to Florida. In 61 games last year, the 5'-10", 170 lbs. blueliner registered 47 points (6 goals & 41 assists) and was an impressive +35. Cameron previous played for three seasons with the Ontario Reign in the ECHL as well as for Manchester & Rochester in the American Hockey League.

Zach McCullough is a third defenseman joining the IceMen roster. From Barrie, Ontario, the 6'-2", 197 lbs. McCullough played in 53 games for the Kalamazoo Wings (1 goal & 3 assists) and completes the earlier trade of Patrick Kennedy to the Wings. Zach is also 27 years of age and previously played in the ECHL for Elmira following a five year career at the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada.

Forward Patrick Cullen comes from the Rapid City Rush, completing the earlier trade of Kyle Kerbashian to South Dakota. A native of Washington, DC, the 5'-11", 189 lbs. Cullen played in 69 ECHL games with both Rapid City and Indianapolis last year scoring 14 goals and adding 27 assists for 41 points. Patrick is 26 years of age and previously played for South Carolina in the ECHL as well as in Germany with Klostersee EHC, Ravensburg, and Dresden during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.

And forward Kyle Just also comes from Rapid City completing the earlier trade of Kevin Harvey to the Rush. Just twenty-four years of age, Kyle played most of the 2014-15 season at Mercyhurst College, scoring 13 goals and 21 assists for 34 points in 38 games before finishing up the year in Rapid City. In five years at Mercyhurst, the 6'-0", 190 lbs. native of Arnprior, Ontario tallied 29 goals & 73 assists for 102 points in 143 games.

Season-Ending Rosters may include up to 20 players. Season-Ending Rosters cannot include any players who did not sign an ECHL contract in 2014-15.

Each team is entitled to reserve rights to a maximum of eight players from the list of 20 by extending a qualifying offer no later than July 1. Of the eight qualified players, no more than four can be veterans (260 regular season professional hockey games played as of the start of the 2015-16 season). Players on open qualifying offers cannot be traded. Teams are not required to extend a qualifying offer to players who sign a contract prior to July 1.

The qualifying offer must remain open for acceptance until Aug. 1 at which time the qualifying offer becomes null and void and the team may sign the qualified player to any salary or may elect to take no further action. Teams that extend a valid qualifying offer to a non-veteran player shall retain the rights to that qualified player for one playing season.

A team that extends a valid qualifying offer to a veteran player, or to a goaltender who has played more than 180 regular-season games, will retain the rights to that player until Aug. 1. After Aug. 1, if the veteran player or goaltender is not signed to a contract by the team, the veteran or goaltender shall be deemed a restricted free agent and shall be entitled to seek and secure offers of employment from other ECHL teams. Restricted free agents may not be traded. When a restricted free agent receives a contract offer from a team other than the team with the player's rights and the restricted free agent wishes to accept the contract offer, the restricted free agent and the offering member must, within 24 hours, notify the ECHL, the team with the player's rights and the Professional Hockey Players' Association. The member with the player's rights shall have seven days after the date it is notified to exercise its right to match the contract offer.

If a restricted free agent is not signed to either an offer sheet or a contract by an ECHL team by Aug. 31, the player shall be deemed an unrestricted free agent.

2015-16 IceMen season tickets are now on sale by calling an IceMen Account Executive at (812) 421-GOAL (4625), Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm. Season tickets start for as little as $10.00 per game. And for more information about the IceMen please go to www.evansvilleicemen.com.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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