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Former Chief Boutin Wins AHL Monthly Award

January 6, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The American Hockey League announced that former Johnstown Chiefs All-Star and current Springfield Falcons goaltender Jonathan Boutin has been named the Rbk X-Pulse/AHL Goaltender of the Month for December.

Boutin is the second former ECHL goaltender in a row to win the award joining former Long Beach Ice Dogs and current Hamilton Bulldogs goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who received the honor in December.

The Chiefs are the ECHL affiliate of the Falcons of the AHL and the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League.

The ECHL has affiliations with 24 of the 27 teams in the American Hockey League in 2006-07 and for the past 17 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion. The ECHL has had more players called up to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined each of the past four seasons with 1,646 call ups involving almost 1,000 players.

The 21-year-old was 5-1-1 with a shutout, a 1.77 goals-against average and a .942 save percentage in nine games helping Springfield move into a tie for second place in the Atlantic Division. He is 5-3-1 with a shutout, a goals-against average of 2.13 and a save percentage of .929 in 12 games for the Falcons while also playing for Johnstown where he is 0-2-0 with a goals-against average of 3.07 and a save percentage of .919.

Selected in the third round (96th overall) by Tampa Bay in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and under NHL contract to the Lightning, the 21-year-old Boutin was the starting goaltender for the American Conference in the ECHL All-Star Game and was 8-9-2 with two shutouts, a goals-against average of 2.93 and a save percentage of .920 in 19 games for Johnstown in 2005-06. He also played in the AHL with Springfield where he was 8-12-2 with a goals-against average of 3.13 and a save percentage of .889 in 22 games.

Other nominees for the Rbk X-Pulse/AHL Goaltender of the Month were Al Montoya, who played for Charlotte and now plays for Hartford; Frank Doyle, who played for Idaho and now plays for Lowell; Jason LaBarbera, who played for Charlotte and now plays for Manchester; Karl Goehring, who played for Dayton and now plays for Milwaukee; Dov Grumet-Morris, who began the season with Cincinnati and is now with Portland; Josh Tordjman, who began the season in Phoenix and is now with San Antonio; Andrew Penner, who played for Dayton and now plays for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton; and Thomas Greiss, who has played for Fresno this season and is now with Worcester.


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

The Premier 'AA' Hockey League, the ECHL has affiliations with 25 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League in 2006-07. There have been 311 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including a record 47 in 2005-06. There have been 166 players who have played in the NHL after the ECHL in the past five seasons.

The ECHL was represented for the sixth consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team, including Carolina Hurricanes head coach Peter Laviolette, who is the first ECHL coach to win the Stanley Cup.

The Idaho Steelheads and the City of Boise will host the 15th Annual ECHL All-Star Game presented by Rbk Hockey on Jan. 17 and the 10th Annual ECHL All-Star Skills Competition presented by Rbk Hockey on Jan. 16 at Qwest Arena.

The ECHL raised its average attendance for the third straight year in 2005-06 drawing 3,934,794 for 900 games which is an average of 4,372 per game, an increase of more than nine percent from 2004-05 and the largest per-game average since 1999-2000. Six teams surpassed 200,000 and nine teams averaged 5,000 per game for the first time since 1999-2000 as the league welcomed 39 sellout crowds and 13 of the 22 returning teams raised their average attendance from a year ago.

In 2005-06 the ECHL and its member teams contributed more than $2.3 million for charity and relief funds, including those benefiting victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, while also making thousands of appearances by players, coaches, team personnel and mascots at schools, hospitals, libraries and charity functions.

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

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