WITH Thunder Bay native Jeff Heerema deciding to head overseas and play hockey this season it adds yet another local product to the rosters of teams competing in Germany.
Heerema has inked a contract to play for the Frankfurt Lions of the DEL, one of the premier leagues in all of Europe.
The former first round draft choice of the Carolina Hurricanes joins a Frankfurt team that finished eighth in the 14-team DEL a season ago.
He is beginning his eighth season in the professional ranks that has mainly included time in the AHL along with a brief stint in the NHL with Carolina and St. Louis.
Heerema had spent the previous two campaigns with the Binghamton Senators of the AHL where he led the Sens in both goals and points a year ago.
The 27-year-old forward made an immediate impression with his new club scoring just eight seconds into his first game and adding another one later in a 13-4 rout in an exhibition encounter against an Italian side.
In 494 career games as a pro, Heerema has scored 158 goals and chipped in with 195 assists for 353 points.
He now joins the likes of other area products such as Paul Traynor, Jimmy Roy, Jason Jaspers, Dustin VanBallegooie and Mike Kompon already playing in Germany along with Rick Adduono who is beginning his first year as head coach of Iserlohn in the DEL.
SUCCESSFUL STINT: It was a good week for Haley Irwin and the rest of the Canadian national women’s under-22 team as they swept a three-game exhibition series against their U.S. U-22 counterparts that was played in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Irwin got things going in fine fashion in the opening contest potting the game-winner in game one, a 3-1 for win Canada.
She was held off score sheet in a 3-2 game-two win for her squad, but chipped in with an assist Sunday as Canada finished off the Americans with a 4-3 victory in overtime scoring with only three seconds remaining.
Irwin will now concentrate on heading to Duluth where she will begin her U.S. collegiate career at the University of Minnesota-Duluth on scholarship on the Bulldogs women’s team.
THUNDER BAY WEST: Bob Miller, the head coach and general manager of the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Canmore Eagles is doing his best to stockpile his roster with players from Thunder Bay.
Miller’s latest acquisition came last week as he acquired local product Anthony Gorenszach from the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the BCHL for future considerations.
With that deal and the recent trade for Justin Gvora from the Thunder Bay Bearcats of the SIJHL the Eagles now have a total of six players from the city on the club’s current roster.
The other four being Mike Hartviksen, David Fitzpatrick, Chris Longley and Andy Hyvarinen, who all skated for Canmore last season.
Having players from Thunder Bay in his line-up is nothing new for Miller who routinely had charges from the city on his squad with his former club, the Portage Terriers of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.