ECHL Reading Royals

Tyler Doig and Steve Ward Selected As ECHL All-Stars

December 31, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


Reading, PA - The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, today announced that forward Tyler Doig and defenseman Steve Ward have been selected to represent the Royals at the 2009 ECHL All-Star Game. The Royals, the City of Reading and the Sovereign Center will host the 17th Annual ECHL All-Star Game on January 21, 2009 and the 12th Annual All-Star Skills Competition on January 20, 2009.

Doig, who represented the Columbia Inferno in the 2008 ECHL All-Star game in Stockton, California, leads the Royals with twenty-three points (6g-17a=23) in twenty-eight games with team. A second year pro from Seaforth, Ontario, the twenty-two year old Doig has racked up fifteen points (5g-12a) in his last twelve games with the Royals. Ward, who will be making his first appearance in an ECHL All-Star Game, leads Royals' defensemen with ten points (2g-8a) in nineteen games with the team. Earlier this month, Ward, a twenty-two year old second year pro from Scarborough, Ontario, earned a call-up to the Albany River Rats of the AHL, where he picked up an assist and played to a plus 3 (+3) in six games before being returned to the Royals on Monday.

Ward and Doig will play for the American Conference squad, which includes eleven first year pros. Eighteen of the twenty-one players on the American Conference roster will be making their first appearance in an ECHL All-Star Game. There have been forty-six players from the ECHL All-Star Game who have gone on to play in the National Hockey League, including twenty-nine since 2002 when the line-ups began having players who coaches felt were prospects to move up to a higher level.

The starting line-ups are determined in voting by American Conference coaches, team captains, media directors, broadcasters and media members. Coaches also submitted the top prospects from within their conference to determine the final roster with each of the nine teams having a representative.

The Stanley Cup and the Patrick J. Kelly Cup will both be on display throughout the event, marking the ninth time in the last ten years that the NHL championship trophy and the ECHL championship trophy have been displayed together at the All-Star Game.

Reading returns to action on Sunday afternoon (December 31, 2008 @ 1:05 pm), when the Royals face the Dayton Bombers. Sunday's game will be broadcast live on the Royals Radio Network Presented by Transmissions by Arbogast (True Oldies WRAW 1340 am in Reading; and The Ticket WLAN 1390 am in Lancaster), as well as on the internet via webcast hosted by Sportsjuice.com, which can be accessed through the Royals website.

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