Worcester Sharks Alumni News

Grosenick named AHL’s Outstanding Goaltender

The AHL announced earlier this week that former Worcester Sharks goaltender Troy Grosenick was the winner of the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding goaltender for the 2016-17 season. He was previously named to the 2016-17 First Team AHL All-Star last week and has had his best season yet. During this season he had a record of 30-9-3, ranking second in wins (30), goals-against average (1.98), and save percentage (.930). Grosenick is just the fifth goaltender to ever reach double digits in shutouts for a single season. Troy was named AHL’s player of the week twice this season and was their goaltender of the month for February.

Roy Sommer named AHL’s Outstanding Coach

The American Hockey League announced earlier this week that Roy Sommer, current coach of the San Jose Barracuda, is the winner of the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding coach for the 2016-17 season. This is notable because this is the first time he has won the award and this is arguably the best season he’s ever coached for. He’s led the Barracuda (half of the team is former Worcester Sharks) to a Pacific Division title and the league’s second best Winning Percentage. The Barracuda currently have the league’s best offense (with 3.44 goals per game), second-best powerplay (23.8 percent) and fourth in team- defense (2.56 goals per game).

Riley Gill Named ECHL Goaltender of the Year

The ECHL announced earlier this week that Riley Gill was named Goaltender of the Year. Riley finished the season tied for first with the most shoutouts in the ECHL with seven, which was also his career high. He also finished the season with 32 wins, having 78 total wins in 122 starts in his ECHL career. Gill was previously named to ECHL’s All-ECHL First Team earlier this season and was ECHL’s Goaltender of the Month for December 2016.

Costello Named ECHL Scoring Champion & ECHL MVP

The ECHL also announced that Chad Costello was named ECHL’s Scoring Champion and was named ECHL MVP later in the week. It is his third consecutive season of winning the ECHL Scoring Championship honor and is his third time receiving the ECHL MVP honor. Chad was also named to ECHL’s All-ECHL First Team earlier this season. He led the ECHL with most points (122) and most assists (89). He ranked 8th in goals (33) this season.

Dane Walters Named ECHL Player of the Week

Former Worcester Shark Dane Walters was named Sher-Wood Hockey ECHL Player of the Week for the week of April 3-9. Walters led the Toledo Walleye to a record-tying five goal performance in a 10-0 win over the Indy Fuel last Saturday. It was the 32nd time in league history that a player has scored five goals in a game. Scoring a total of six points, he tied a Walleye record for points in a single game.

Transactions

Barclay Goodrow was recalled to the San Jose Sharks (NHL) from the San Jose Barracuda (AHL) on April 9.

Yanni Gourde was reassigned to the Syracuse Crunch (AHL) from the Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL) on April 10.

Nikolay Goldobin was reassigned to the Utica Comets (AHL) from the Vancouver Canucks (NHL) on April 10.

Sean Sullivan has signed a one-year contract (starts 2017-18 season) with the ERC Ingolstadt (DEL).

Note: This may be the final edition of the 2016-17 season, depending on events going on during each playoff week. We may end up posting individual posts as events happen.