OA goalie back in Saginaw
Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League received a net gain today with the return of overage goalie Evan Cormier from the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League.
Joey (Slick) Battaino, director of broadcasting and communications for the OHL Spirit, tweeted that Cormier is headed back to Saginaw for what will be the veteran goalie’s overage season.
The return of the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Cormier is a major building block for Saginaw, which missed the Western Conference playoffs by six points in what was a rebuild 2016-2017 season.
By all accounts, Cormier — a fourth-round pick of New Jersey at the 2016 NHL draft — showed well at the Devils training camp. The catch though is that New Jersey already has two young goalies in its farm system in OHL graduates Ken Appleby and Mackenzie Blackwood.
Cormier gives a young Saginaw squad a high-end, proven OHL goalie as it heads into the 2017-2018 season.
The 63 points that Saginaw put up in 2016-2017 were more than three teams who made the playoffs in the Eastern Conference — Sudbury Wolves, Ottawa 67’s and Niagara IceDogs.
In fact, with better secondary goal-tending, Saginaw might well have squeaked into the playoffs.
Cormier certainly did his part with a record of 23-19-7 that was accompanied by a 3.23 goals against average and .899 save percentage.
Without Cormier in goal last season, Saginaw struggled with a 4-13-2 record.
PHOTO: Saginaw Spirit goalie Evan Cormier.