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Former ECHL Netminder Sabourin Is First Team All-AHL

April 8, 2006 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The American Hockey League has announced that Wilkes-Barre/Scranton goaltender Dany Sabourin, who has played in the ECHL with Johnstown, Las Vegas and Wheeling, has been named First Team All-AHL.

The AHL also announced that former Greensboro and current Manitoba goaltender Wade Flaherty, former Charlotte and current Hartford defenseman Thomas Pock, and former Florida and current Lowell center Keith Aucoin have been named Second Team All-AHL.

Sabourin is 28-14-4 and is second in the AHL with a goals-against average of 2.30 and is tied for third with a save percentage of .921. One of 11 former ECHL players chosen to the 2006 Rbk Hockey AHL All-Star Classic, the 25-year-old is third in the league with a team-record 28 wins and is tied for fourth with three shutouts. Sabourin was voted as a starter for the ECHL All-Star Game in 2005, but was unable to play after being called up to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. In 2004-05, Sabourin was 19-6-1 and led the league with a goals-against average of 1.67 and a save percentage of .942 in 27 games with Wheeling while tying for second in the ECHL with a team record five shutouts. He began his professional career in the ECHL in 2000-01 with Johnstown and returned to the Chiefs in 2001-02 while playing for Las Vegas in 2003-04.

Flaherty leads the AHL with six shutouts and is fourth with a goals-against average of 2.45 and is tied for sixth with a save percentage of .917. The co-MVP of the Rbk Hockey AHL All-Star Classic, Flaherty began his professional career in the ECHL in 1989-90 with the Greensboro Monarchs, going 12-9-1 with a goals against average of 4.40 and a save percentage of .890 in 27 regular season games. Flaherty was named MVP of the 1990 Riley Cup Playoffs after going 8-1 with a goals against average of 2.22 and a save percentage of .944 while leading the Monarchs to the ECHL championship.

In his second professional season, Pock is second among AHL defensemen with 61 points (15g-46a) in 66 games for Hartford and he represented the Wolf Pack in the Rbk Hockey AHL All-Star Classic. Aucoin, whose younger brother Phil plays for the Florida Everblades, has career highs with 26 goals and 51 assists in 66 games with Lowell and also played in the Rbk Hockey AHL All-Star Classic. Aucoin had two assists in one game with Florida in 2001-02 while Pock had two assists with Charlotte in his first full professional season in 2004-05.

Former ECHL players have won the CCM Vector/AHL Player of the Week award nine times in 2005-06 with Aucoin (Florida and Lowell), Mike Ayers (Dayton and Syracuse), Zdenek Blatny (Greenville and Springfield), Brian Finley (Toledo and Milwaukee), Jamie Holden (Fresno and Cleveland), Jani Hurme (Columbia and Portland), Brent Krahn (Las Vegas and Omaha), Lawrence Nycholat (Jackson and Hershey) and Nathan Robinson (Toledo and Providence).

There are eight head coaches, 12 assistant coaches and countless other personnel on the 27 teams in the AHL, including Mike Haviland, who won the Kelly Cup with Atlantic City in 2002-03 and Trenton in 2004-05 and moved up to the AHL as head coach of Norfolk. Other former ECHL coaches who are now head coaches in the AHL are Claude Noel of Milwaukee, Roy Sommer of Cleveland, Greg Ireland of Grand Rapids, Dave Allison of Iowa, Scott Gordon of Providence, Bruce Boudreau of Hershey and David Baseggio of Bridgeport.

For the each of the past three seasons, the ECHL has had more players called up to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined, including 2004-05 when over 200 players were involved in 355 call ups, accounting for almost 80 percent of the AHL roster additions. The ECHL had 425 call ups involving 234 players in 2003-04 and 450 call ups in 2002-03.

The AHL Most Valuable Player Award has been won four times by former ECHL players, most recently by former Charlotte goaltender Jason LaBarbera in 2003-04. Other former ECHL players who were named as MVP of the AHL are Eric Boguniecki in 2001-02, Martin Brochu in 1999-2000 and Brad Smyth in 1995-96.

The AHL Coach of the Year award was won by ECHL coaches four years in a row from 2001-04 with Noel (2004), Geoff Ward (2003), Bruce Cassidy (2002) and Don Granato (2001) while current Carolina Hurricanes and former Wheeling coach Peter Laviolette was the first ECHL coach to capture the award in 1999.

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