More Retirement Announcements
Last week there was a number of notable retirement announcements for a number of Worcester Hockey alum. We covered Josh Monk’s retirement on Monday and Trevor Gillies on Tuesday, but there are more retirements to talk about.
Pat Cullity announced his retirement on Friday, which comes after spending some time with the Worcester Railers and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers last season. He had been considering retirement for some time and after he elected not to return to Worcester for their playoff run, it became more obvious as to what his decision was. Cullity hangs up his skates after suiting up for over 475 professional games between the AHL and ECHL.
Worcester Hockey writer Bill Ballou will also be retiring, according to an event on the Telegram & Gazette Facebook page. Ballou had been considering retirement for some time, hinting that his retirement was coming sooner than later.
Another retirement that was missed was former IceCat Michal Handzus from two weeks ago. Handzus took last season off from playing and has retired after becoming an assistant coach for the Slovakian National Team later in the 2017-18 season.
As of Today, only two former Worcester IceCats have signed to play for next season – Ladislav Nagy and Arvids Rekis. With Gillies retirement earlier this week, it looks like we will never see a former IceCat play against or for the Railers. The only opportunity came last season when Gillies played for the South Carolina Stingrays in which Gillies was a scratch.
Railers Roster Updates, Pre-Season Updates
The Railers Roster (12 skaters + 1 goalie) currently looks like this:
Forwards:
Barry Almeida
Tyler Barnes
Malcolm Gould
Woody Hudson
Tommy Kelley
Jordan Kwas
Nick Sorkin
Dylan Willick
Defensemen:
Connor Doherty
Kyle McKenzie
Tommy Panico
Alexis Vanier
Goalies:
Mitch Gillam
???
This roster has all of the Worcester signings in addition to Mitch Gillam, who has signed with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers as their third goalie. Speaking of Bridgeport, they have another seven players that will likely be assigned to Worcester at the beginning of the season. Bridgeport, who has a surplus of both Forwards and Defensemen, will need to assign players to Worcester as there simply isn’t enough open spots on the roster for players to get enough ice time.
Josh Holmstrom
Mike Cornell
Ryan MacKinnon
Tyler Mueller
Matt Gaudreau
Jeff Kubiak
Yannick Turcotte
Players will gradually be assigned to Worcester as Bridgeport’s training camp progresses later this month. As for Worcester, it should be expected that a bunch of players will be receiving invites to training camp, with cuts being made towards the end of the pre-season. A pre-season roster will be released at the start of training camp later this month.
According to the Lighthouse Hockey Blog, Islanders draft pick Linus Soderstrom might not play for the 2018-19 season or have a very late start to the season as he is still recovering from an injury from last season. Whether he’s coming to Worcester or his North American debut in Bridgeport is still up in the air, for now, it looks like there’s an open spot for the second goaltender spot in Worcester.
Railers will face the Maine Mariners for one of their pre-season games on October 6 at the Rinks at Exeter at 7 pm. A home pre-season game has yet to be announced.
Website Posts This Week and Things Going On:
In case you missed some of the news we passed along this week, you can find them all here:
Women’s pro hockey arrives in Worcester – Worcester Magazine
Former NHL & AHL Tough Guy, Worcester IceCat Trevor Gillies Announces His Retirement
Former IceCat Michal Handzus to Retire