Sizable 6’5″ 230 lbs. left wing Brad Winchester(15) signed his first minor league contract to play professional hockey in his 12th year of service.
The 33-year old inked late for a one year AHL deal with Norfolk Admirals. He was also invited to Anaheim Ducks‘ training camp to start ’14/’15 but was among the first to be released, despite having a strong showing.
He actually spent 19 regular season and 3 postseason games with them a few seasons ago amongst the many teams he’s skated for.
Originally an Edmonton Oilers‘ 2nd round pick in the 2000 draft (#35 overall), he played his first four years in their system including his first two stints with a pair of farm club Roadrunners, first Toronto then Edmonton.
It wasn’t until his fourth season that he became a regular in the show.
He’s appeared in 390 NHL games (mostly through three years with St. Louis Blues) scoring 37 goals, 31 assists and a monster -42 rating.
His last pair of campaigns have been exclusively in the minors and he seems fairly comfortable assuming the role of assistant captain.
He’s quite the poiny scorer in the league too at 96 goals and 81 assists in 319 games but still haunted by a horrible -32 plus/minus.
It remains to be seen if those on ice accountability numbers will improve but he’s off to a hot start with a first time reversed 3 goals and 4 assists in 9 games and a +1.