ECHL Reading Royals

Royals Sign Defenseman Ryan Crane

Published on January 27, 2010 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 signed defenseman Ryan Crane to an ECHL contract. In separate transactions, forward Matt Marquardt and defenseman Jared Ross have been assigned by the Providence Bruins to the Royals. In another separate transaction, the Royals have suspended defenseman Nick St. Pierre.

Crane (6'0/205) (290, an eighth year pro who hails from Mississauga, Ontario, attended training camp this fall with the Royals but was released prior to opening day. Last year, he began the season in Denmark, where he sustained an injury after seventeen games. Crane then returned to North America where he joined the Corpus Christi Icerays of the Central Hockey League. While with the Icerays, Crane picked up fourteen points (5g-9a) in twenty-seven games during Corpus Christi's run to the playoffs. That actually marked Crane's return to North American pro after playing most of 2006-07 and all of 2007-08 in Europe. Crane spent the 2007-08 season with the Edinburgh Capitals of Britain's Elite Ice Hockey League, where he led defensemen on the team (and was third amongst d-men in the league) with fifty points (13g-37a) and 129 penalty minutes in fifty-four regular season games, which earned him the award as the team's Player of the Year. Crane accomplished similar feats during the 2003-04 season with the Trenton (then-)Titans, where he led the team's defenders in scoring and was selected as the team's top d-man. Reading marks the seventh ECHL stop for Crane, who has played a total of 290 pro games in his career, which began when he joined the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies in March of 2002 after the conclusion of his senior season at Western Michigan University. In 110 collegiate games with WMU, Crane scored eleven goals, assisted on forty-one others (fifty-two points), and racked up 139 penalty minutes and was chosen as the school's top defender in his final year with the Broncos.

This marks the second trip of the season to Reading for Marquardt, a second year pro from North Bay, Ontario. He was assigned to Reading on December 29, 2009, and played three games for the Royals, during which he registered an assist, prior to being recalled to Providence on January 8, 2010. In thirty-three games with Providence this season, Marquardt has assisted on eight goals and picked up nineteen penalty minutes. Ross, a first year pro from Stony Island, Nova Scotia, began the season with the Royals and played twenty games with Reading, scoring three goals and assisting on two others, prior to being recalled to Providence on December 10, 2009. In eighteen games with the P-Bruins, Ross has picked up two assists and two penalty minutes.

Reading returns to action tonight (Wednesday, January 27, 2010 @ 7:05 pm) when the Gwinnett Gladiators visit the Sovereign Center for the first time this season. The first 1500 fans that night get a collector's card set of the Royals All-Time Great Goaltenders (Barry Brust, Yutaka Fukufuji, Jon Quick, Cody Rudkowsky, and Jeff Sanger). The Royals game night broadcast on the Royals Radio Network presented by Transmissions by Arbogast will kick off with the pre-game warm-up show at 6:35 pm.

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