Salvis Re-Signs

As a lot of you probably noticed, Gmail was down for a while today, which made life (especially on blogger.com) very difficult.

So, more than a few hours late, I present you with the news that Ryan Salvis has been re-signed by the Bucks for the 2009-10 season.

Salvis arrived in Laredo last season after training camp because he started out with an ECHL team and missed some time with a shoulder injury, but Coach Ruskowski spoke very highly of him, and he really came into his own toward the end of the season.

In spite of being a rookie, he was trusted to play at even strength, on the top or second power-play unit or even on the penalty kill at different points in the season.

When I spoke to Salvis at last year's season-ending season ticket holder party, he said he was very interested in coming back, but neither of us really knew what the chances of that were then. I'm sure he's thrilled with this news, though he's probably known of it a bit longer than we have.

Ruskowski has obviously emphasized that very few of last season's players will be returning, but we have also been promised a few more player re-signing press conferences this season, so maybe the final tally will be a bit higher than expected.

This signing is notable because Salvis is the first (and possibly only) returning player who is not a "franchise Buck" with a long history with the team like Igor Agarunov, Jeff Bes and Adam Rivet. Yes, I know Bes hasn't technically re-signed yet, but I think we're all pretty confident in that one.

Sadly, Salvis is one of the players for whom I do not have a phone number, and I forgot to ask Ruskowski for it when I spoke to him earlier, so tomorrow's story in the Times will not have any quotes from the player himself. Ruskowski, however, did have a lot to say about the 25-year-old center, so be sure to check out that story if you're a subscriber. I'll share some of the quotes on here tomorrow once the story has come out.

In the spirit of ending posts with YouTube videos, here are a couple of Salvis scoring goals during his junior career: