The Newfoundland Growlers have bolstered a thinned-out roster with a couple of players brought in from the Southern Professional Hockey League, and the Growlers have to be hoping the two can make contributions in line with some of the other players they’ve signed out of the SPHL this season.
As the Growlers prepare to take on the Maine Mariners at Mile One Centre Friday night, when they will be seeking an ECHL record 19th straight win, they’ve been addressing the needs of what had been a bare-bones roster.
Injuries and call-ups to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies led to the Growlers playing with just 14 skaters — two less than the ECHL norm — in a 4-2 road win over the Worcester Railers Sunday. Forward Trey Bradley, who served a one-game league suspension in that game, is available and the Marlies did return a player earlier this week, but that was netminder Parker Gahagen, who contributes to what is Newfoundland’s one position of current depth, joining Angus Redmond and Maksim Zhukov in a Growlers goaltending triumvirate.
So with forwards/linemates Zach O’Brien and Marcus Power day to day with injuries suffered on the recent road trip (neither skated in practice Wednesday), Newfoundland has brought in forward Alex Baer and defenceman Derian Hamilton from the SPHL.
The Growlers have had great success with players promoted from the Southern Professional circuit this season, beginning with Gahagen, who came on board in December and since has posted a 9-2-0 record, 1.67 goals-against average and .947 save percentage. His performance has been such that he was bumped up from an ECHL to AHL contract by the parent Toronto Maple Leafs organization.
Butt there is also forward Dylan Vander Esch, who has five goals and five assists in 18 games since he arrived from the SPHL in late November. Vander Esch also has a solid plus-10 rating.
And while defenceman Kyle Froese has just two assists, he also has a noteworthy plus-minus rating of plus-eight in 12 games since being signed from Pensacola of the SPHL.
Newfoundland has used four other players from the SPHL this season, but while all have been released, it’s worth noting that three of them — defencemen Mike Crocock, Phil Johansson and Meirs Moore — have since been claimed on waivers or signed by other ECHL teams and were still in the ECHL as of Thursday.
Hamilton had been with the SHL’s Fayetteville Marksmen (the same club that provided Vander Esch), where he had a goal and 10 assists in 17 games. A 25-year British Columbian who played for the NCAA’s Penn State Nittany Lions, Hamilton has some ECHL experience, 11 games in total, including eight with the Reading Royals this season.
Baer has quite a bit more, 50 in all, mostly with the Rapid City Rush, and has 10 goals and nine assists in his time in the ECHL
A native of suburban Minneapolis, the 22-year-old Baer played in the major junior ranks with three Western Hockey League teams — the Vancouver Giants, Lethbridge Hurricanes and Kootenay Ice. He is a rare player to have appeared in six WHL season, beginning with six games with the Giants as a 15-year-old and finishing up with his overage year at Kootenay, where he was the Ice’s leading scorer in 2017-18.
Twitter: @telybrendan
