Sorry for the delay in posting this, but the Bucks announced earlier today that they have signed forward Justin Styffe for the upcoming season.
Though Styffe comes into Laredo billed as an enforcer, he will be expected to do more than drop his gloves for the Bucks, and Coach Ruskowski already sees potential for improvement in the 24-year-old winger's play.
Styffe racked up 233 penalty minutes in 60 games with the International Hockey League's Flint Generals last season while scoring six goals and handing out nine assists, only the second time in his career that he has had more assists than goals.
His previous experience comes via three years of college hockey and one year in juniors; the number of penalty minutes he managed to put up in college is pretty impressive considering you can't even fight at that level.
Ruskowski mentioned that he got to know a lot more about Styffe by seeing him on YouTube, so here are a couple videos you can watch to get an idea of how he fights:
He lands some brutal punches, yikes.
As far as skill goes, we'll have to see about that at training camp. Ruskowski mentioned that Styffe is a good skater but needs to be more aware of the puck and drive to net a little more.
He has also told me that he only plans to have 18 players on his active roster this season for salary cap purposes, with Igor Agarunov at least starting the season at forward, so we can expect a few more defensive signings this summer.
The Styffe signing should be the only announcement this week, though, so I'll have some time to catch up on some stuff that has fallen to the wayside recently.
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2 comments:
Looks like a tough hockey player. Hopefully his skills flourish so he can chip in with some scoring and help out the team.
I sure hope that El Presidente isn't recruiting based on what's on You Tube. I certainly hope he still has some scouts that are out there looking around for decent prospects. I think I'm more worried than Coach about the players we have signed up. It's not shaping up to be a very reassuring year. Hope it gets better!
Nevertheless, let the season begin!
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