The Guelph Storm Hockey Club announced today that Ben Harpur, the team's 3rd round pick in 2011, has signed an Ontario Hockey League contract with the team.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake native played both forward and defence last year picking up 18 points and 111 penalty minutes in 43 games for the Niagara Falls Canucks. The 6’5, 200 pound defenceman started the 2010-2011 season as a right winger, but moved to the blueline in December. Along with fellow Storm picks Jason Dickinson, Brody Milne and Adam Moodie, the 16 year old competed at the OMHA Under-17 Program of Excellence Final Camp at the University of Guelph in May.
“Ben has exceptional talent to go with his 6’ 5”, 200 pound frame”, Vice President and GM Mike Kelly said. “He possesses above average skating ability, good puck skills and hockey sense. We expect Ben to be a future cornerstone of our defence corp.”
With the signing of Harpur, Kelly indicated that there is one additional underage (1995 born) roster spot open on this year’s team. As such, he expects there to be fierce competition from the other 13 players drafted in last May’s OHL Priority Selection. Underage players who are not on the opening roster are eligible to play up to 10 games with the Storm prior to January 10th, and then they can join the Storm later in the season once their midget and/or junior season is completed.
Harpur will join the rest of the Storm when training camp opens at the Sleeman Centre on August 29th. Tickets for all Storm pre-season and regular season games will go on sale on Monday, August 22nd starting at noon.
|
The grade 11, 6’4”, 190 lb defenceman began the 2010 season in his usual position as a left winger. In December, Coach Ferroni determined that the best position and utilization for Harpur would be on defence. At that time, while he was already being noticed on forward, he garnered more attention playing defence. During the SCTA Showcase in January, GM of the Guelph Storm, Mike Kelly, had more of an opportunity to watch the defenceman in action. In an interview following the draft selection, Kelly was quoted as saying “We’ll have to be patient with him, but the upside is he may eventually play like a first round pick.” This past weekend Harpur attended the Guelph Storm orientation session participating in fitness testing with other 2011 draft players, and also some returning ’94 players. While continuing his more than two years of skills development with Ferroni Hockey, the next few months will be a demanding schedule of off ice training at Casal’s boxing and strength conditioning with local fitness consultants in conjunction with advice from Toronto Maple Leaf x Assistant GM Jeff Jackson, and personal strength and conditioning coach Matt Nichol. The Guelph Storm will hold their training camp beginning the week after Labour Day. Guelph OHL Priority Video: http://www.guelphstorm.com/video/index/id/1ae01edc6d6d1dbd2f173bc1172cbde1 |
GUELPH, ONT|
HANOVER, N.H. — After a weekend of goals and thrills, sophomore defender Sasha Nanji (Markham, Ont.) was named ECAC Hockey MLX Skates Player of the Week on Tuesday, November 16. The ninth-ranked Big Green went 2-0 on the weekend with each game going to overtime. Nanji accounted for both game-winning goals and set a career high on Friday at Princeton. Against the Tigers, the blueliner netted her first career hat trick in a 3-2 overtime win. The three goals marked a career-high. On Saturday, at Quinnipiac, she scored another goal and added an assist in a 4-3 overtime win. She once again ended the contest with an overtime goal and now has six on the season. She also has three assists on the year for a total of nine points. The second-year player leads the nation in points per game (1.50) by a defenseman. |
Ferroni Hockey Summer Lead Instructor Cahill Earns Conference Honors
Senior Gets ECAC Player of Week
ALBANY, N.Y. - Chris Cahill (North Andover, Mass.) earned ECAC Hockey honors today after leading the top-ranked Yale men's hockey team to a pair of wins over nationally ranked teams last weekend at Ingalls Rink.
Cahill, a senior forward who had three goals and four points over the weekend, had a goal in the 4-2 win over No. 15/16 Rensselaer on Dec. 3 before netting a pair of goals and an assist during the 5-0 win over No. 13 Union two days later. He earned conference player of the week honors.
He is third on the team with six goals after notching two multiple-goal games this season. His career numbers are 22 goals and 54 points.
