ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Add Veteran D-Men Derick Martin and Marvin Degon

Published on September 27, 2011 under ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Reading, PA - The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, today announced that the team has agreed to terms with defensemen Derick Martin and Marvin Degon ["DEE gon"].

The Royals have now announced twenty-six players as signed to either ECHL contracts (22) or Tryout Agreements (4) for the 2011-12 season-fourteen forwards (Phil Aucoin, Bryan Brutlag, Ryan Cruthers, Joe Cucci, Casey Haines, Olivier Labelle, Peter MacDougall, Vladimir Nikiforov, Jason O'Bannon, Chad Painchaud, Richard Purslow, John Scrymgeour, Rob Shearer, and Everett Sheen) and twelve defensemen (Channing Boe, Dave Cowan, Artem Gumenyuk, Rob Kwiet, Derrick LaPoint, Louis Liotti, Ray Macias, Chris Nutini, David Strathman, Denny Urban and Martin and Degon). The Royals kick off Pre-Season Training Camp with a night practice this Friday, September 30 (7:30 - 9:00 pm).

Last season, Martin (5'11/194) (29), who hails from Timmins, Ontario, registered twelve assists and thirty-six penalty minutes in seventy-one regular season games with the Victoria Salmon Kings of the ECHL. Martin, who served as an alternate captain for Victoria, scored two goals and added three assists (five points) in twelve playoff games for the Salmon Kings, who advanced to the Western Conference Finals before being eliminated by the eventual Kelly Cup Champion Alaska Aces. Prior to last season, Martin, who has played 454 games in seven years of pro, spent three consecutive seasons with Alaska, the last two of which he served as an alternate captain, including 2008-09 when the Aces advanced to the Kelly Cup Finals before being knocked off by the South Carolina Stingrays. Prior to turning pro, Martin spent three seasons with the Hull Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he served as team captain in 2001-02 under then-Head Coach Claude Julien (current head coach of the Boston Bruins) in a season where Martin tied for the league best in plus-minus (+26). Martin, who has played sixteen career AHL games, also played two seasons of Canadian university hockey at St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, prior to beginning his pro career.

Degon (5'11/196) (28), a sixth year pro from Salem, Massachusetts, split last season between Ingolstadt ERC in the DEL in Germany, where he registered nine points (2g-7a) and sixteen penalty minutes in twenty-seven games, and Villacher SV EC of the Erste Bank Hockey League in Austria where he added four points (2g-2a) in twelve regular season games. Degon also scored a goal and picked up an assist in ten playoff games for Villacher SV. Degon, who has played the past three seasons in Europe, kicked off his pro career in the AHL where he led team defensemen in scoring on both the Hartford Wolfpack (2006-07) and Hamilton Bulldogs (2007-08). Prior to turning pro, Degon played four years at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where three times he led defensemen on the team in scoring and-in his senior year-led the entire team in offensive production. In 146 college games, Degon registered eighty-three points (27g-56a) and 109 penalty minutes.

The Royals will face the Cincinnati Cyclones in the team's 2011-12 home opener on Saturday, October 22, 2011, at 7:05 pm at the Sovereign Center in Reading, Pennsylvania. The team kicks off the season on the road against the South Carolina Stingrays in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday, October 14 (7:05 pm). That game, as with all Royals' road games this year, will be televised live courtesy of Royals TV presented by Boscov's Travel and Royal Caribbean Cruise lines in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on BCTV.

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