Bucks Add Norrie

The Bucks have made their sixth signing announcement for the upcoming season, inking yet another rookie, and this time one with connections to two other Bucks players.

Today's announcement revealed that Laredo has signed right wing Shaun Norrie, who will come to the Bucks from the University of Lethbridge. As you may recall, one of Laredo's earlier offseason rookie signings, defenseman Devin Featherstone, was also on the Lethbridge squad last season.

Norrie was also once a teammate of forward/defenseman Igor Agarunov, who has played for Laredo for the past four seasons but has not yet been announced as a member of the 2008-09 squad. The two played together for the 2002 Memorial Cup Champion Kootenay Ice.

The Edmonton Oilers selected Norrie in the sixth round of the 2000 NHL Draft, during his five-year junior career. He also played at Lethbridge for five seasons.

You can read Bucks Director of Media Relations/Broadcasting Bryan Benway's press release about this acquisition here.

According to his quotes from Head Coach/General Manager Terry Ruskowski, signing Norrie was a priority for the Bucks based on his size, physicality, scoring ability and Agarunov's "stamp of approval."

"Norrie was the right wing on our line when we won the cup that year," Agarunov says in the release. “We had a good checking line thanks to him. Whenever we had a big play, he seemed to always be involved in it somehow. He was a key part to that title team."

I will be getting in touch with coach to discuss those topics a bit further and see if there is anything else that appealed to him about this sizable winger, who honestly sounds a bit like a taller, slightly more disciplined James Hiebert from the way coach and Agarunov describe him.

I'm sure everyone is starting to get curious about why the team is signing so many rookies, especially with the splashy veteran signings by Southeast Division rivals in recent days. Obviously, there are still plenty of other names to be announced, but I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on the ones we've been given so far.