Rangers sign first-round pick Headrick
Rookie shone at team’s development camp, which was held this past weekend
Evan Headrick is locked in.
The Kitchener Rangers announced the signing of this year’s first-round draft pick (the 15th selection overall) on Monday morning.
“Ever since I’ve been young, I’ve dreamed of this moment,” said Headrick, in a news release. “Especially since watching my older brother do it, I’ve been visualizing myself signing and now that it’s happened it’s been a dream come true.”
Headrick’s older brother, Owen, played for the Erie Otters and won an Ontario Hockey League championship with the club in 2017.
Sixteen-year-old Evan, who hails from Garden River, which is just outside Sault Ste. Marie, had 21 goals and 49 points in 31 games for the Oakville Rangers last season and helped the squad win an OHL Cup.
“We are excited to welcome Evan and his family to the Rangers,” said Blueshirts general manager Mike McKenzie, in a news release.
“We feel his character, work ethic, speed, hockey sense and skill will give him a chance to be a special player here.”
Headrick attended Rangers development camp this past weekend with 44 other players at the Activa Sportsplex.
The prospects did fitness testing, practised and competed in three games.
Headrick scored twice for Team White, which defeated Team Blue, 6-5, 7-1 and 6-3.
Headrick’s older brother, Owen, played for the Erie Otters and won an Ontario Hockey League championship with the club in 2017
Former Ranger suspended
Former Kitchener Rangers forward Jonathan Yantsis has been suspended indefinitely and fined by the ECHL after a player was taken to the hospital on a stretcher after a hit from behind during a playoff game this past weekend.
Yantsis, who pays for the Trois-Rivières Lions, hit Norfolk Admirals defenceman Darick Louis-Jean into the boards just past the halfway mark of the second period in Game 5 of their playoff series on Saturday.
Louis-Jean went to play the puck in the corner of his own zone with Yantsis in pursuit.
The six-foot-two, 210-pound forward, who played parts of four seasons with the Rangers, delivered a two-handed cross check to the blueliner’s lower back that sent him flying into the dasher boards.
Louis-Jean had to be taken off the ice and to the hospital on a stretcher but flashed a thumbs-up to the crowd. The team announced he has since been released from the hospital.
Yantsis was given a game misconduct and tossed from the game.
The ECHL has since suspended him indefinitely pending a review and fined him an undisclosed amount of money.