Storm Roster Undergoes Pre-Season Overhaul
Published on October 6, 2002 under ECHL (ECHL)
Toledo Walleye News Release
(Toledo, Ohio) The Toledo Storm of the East Coast Hockey League today announced that four players were assigned to the team by Toledo's two National Hockey League affiliates, the Detroit Red Wings and the Nashville Predators. Four players were also released. Tim Verbeek and Matt Ellis were assigned to the Storm by the Red Wings through their American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. Wes Mason and Miroslav Durak were assigned to Toledo by the Predators through their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. The four players released by the Storm were Darcy Anderson, Kris Mallette, John McCabe and Martin Miljko.
This will mark the third time for Tim Verbeek, 6'00/205, who turned 23 yesterday, to play in a Storm jersey. In 2000-01, he had an outstanding rookie season in Toledo, racking up 23 goals, 55 points, and 220 penalty minutes in 70 games. Last year, he began the season with the Storm, scoring six goals and adding five assists in forty-two games before being called up by the Red Wings and re-assigned to the Roanoke Express on February 1, 2002, where he played under current Storm Assistant Coach, Mark Bernard. Three games later, Verbeek caught fire racking up a hat-trick on February 9 against the Reading Royals and earning the selection as the ECHL's Player of the Week. Verbeek went on to put up quality numbers in Roanoke, picking up 11 goals and 11 assists in just 23 games. Two of those goals and one of those assists came on February 23 against the Storm in his return performance to the Toledo Sports Arena in a game won by the Express, 6-3.
Ellis, 6'01/209 (21), is about to kick off his rookie pro season after a productive four year career in Canadian major junior hockey with the Toronto St. Michael's Majors in the Ontario Hockey League. The big [6'01/211] winger truly had a breakout season last year, scoring 38 goals and 89 points in 66 games for St. Michael's. Ellis' playoff numbers are, perhaps, even more impressive. In post-season play over the past two seasons, he has scored 12 goals and 26 points in 33 games.
Mason, a fifth year pro who will not turn 25 until December 12, compiled personal ECHL highs in goals (23), assists (25), points (48), and penalty minutes (91) last season with the Augusta Lynx, and, in the process, earned late season call-ups to the AHL with Grand Rapids and the Providence Bruins. A second round draft pick (38th overall) of the New Jersey Devils in 1996, Mason scored 45 goals and added 46 assists in 66 games for the Sarnia Sting in the OHL in the season after his draft. Over the course of the OHL playoffs that year, he added seven goals and eleven assists in twelve games. Mason began his pro career with the Albany River Rats of the AHL, and his best pro season (number-wise, at least) was in 1999-00, when he scored 30 goals and added 37 assists in 69 total games with the Lynx, the Louisville Panthers (AHL) and the Orlando Solar Bears of the International Hockey League. But perhaps his most notable season was with the Solar Bears the following year, when he scored thirteen goals and 27 points in 45 regular season games. Mason then proceeded to rack up six goals and thirteen points in sixteen playoff games, as the Solar Bears successfully captured the final Turner Cup ever awarded in IHL history.
Durak is a big (6'04/219), skilled defenseman, who is about to embark upon his rookie season as a pro. Nashville's eighth round draft pick (#220 overall) in 1999, the twenty-one year old Durak was the leading scoring defenseman for his team, Acadie-Bathurst Titan, of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last season. In both of the two years that Durak played for Acadie-Bathurst, the team went all the way to QMJHL playoff finals. Two years ago, Durak, a native of Topolcany, Slovakia, was also a member of the Under-20 Slovakian National Team that played in the World Junior Championships.
ECHL Stories from October 6, 2002
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- IceGators finish exhibition schedule unbeaten after 2-1 win - Louisiana IceGators
- Kingfish Iced in second exhibition - Baton Rouge Kingfish
- Grizzlies Assign Three Players to Lexington - Utah Grizzlies
- Storm Roster Undergoes Pre-Season Overhaul - Toledo Walleye
- 2002 ECHL MVP assigned to IceGators - Louisiana IceGators
- Gulls Beat Ice Dogs in Preseason Game - San Diego Gulls
- Ice Pilots Skate Past Wolves in Preseason - Mississippi Sea Wolves
- Bombers Edge Toledo 4-3 in Shootout - Dayton Bombers
- Condors Youngsters Impress in Preseason Win - Bakersfield Condors
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