For those who were concerned about the Wolf Pack’s lack of a tue enforcer after the departure to the Islanders by Mitch Fritz, and Phoenix by Francis Lessard, that question may have been answered as the rumor that started with a Syracuse newspaper‘s blog yesterday, tough guy Brandon Sugden has signed a professional try out contract with the team.
While the Pack were not without guys willing to drop the mitts if need be, Hugh Jessiman, Dane Byers, Brodie Dupont, Jordan Owens, to name a few, there was not a single person there to take care of business if you know what we mean.
Here are a couple of clips of Sugden in action:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDg2X8lz7U0&hl=en&fs=1]
Here is a link to Sugden’s own website.
Here is the official release:
BRANDON SUGDEN JOINS WOLF PACK
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Veteran Winger Signs Professional Tryout Agreement
Hartford Wolf Pack general manager Jim Schoenfeld announced today that the team has signed forward Brandon Sugden to a Professional Tryout agreement (PTO).
Sugden, a 10th-year pro, played last season for the St. Jean (Quebec) Chiefs of the Ligue Nord Americaine de Hockey (LNAH). In 37 games with the Chiefs, the 6-4, 233-pound Toronto native registered six assists and 250 minutes in penalties.
The 30-year-old Sugden has 175 games of AHL experience, all with the Syracuse Crunch, save for 11 games with the Worcester IceCats. His AHL career totals show six goals, nine assists, 15 points and 810 penalty minutes.
Sugden was originally a fifth-round pick (111th overall) by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1996 NHL Draft, coming out of the Ontario Hockey League.
This is absolutely what this team needs, with Springfield, Bridgeport and Lowell bulking up and Worcester, Manchester maintaining about the same toughness as last year the Pack were definitely down there with Providence for softest team. And don’t tell me that “team toughness” is good enough, look at Edmonton the last couple years having Hemsky bullied constantly and Providence getting run all night by PLLL in their opener with Lowell. Excellent move getting “Sugar” for the Pack to show Soryal the ropes and take the workload off of him and Huge Specimen. Not to mention I’ve completely rethought taking a trip or two up to Hartford this year 😉
I have mixed reservations about the need to have an enforcer. If he can’t play hockey ,he is using up valuable space for another with better hockey credentials. I watch Orr every year. This year he appears much better. But when the playoffs come around,he has been invisible. Let’s hope this year that is not the case.