The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed forward Adam Payerl to a three-year entry-level contract, it was announced today by executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero.
The deal begins with the 2012-13 season and runs through the 2014-15 campaign.
Payerl, 20, is currently in his third season with the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). In 57 regular-season contests this year, Payerl has established career highs with 20 goals and 44 points – both of which rank third on the Bulls – and 102 penalty minutes.
The 6-foot-3, 216-pound Payerl, who will turn 21 on Sunday, played some of his best hockey of the season in February, tallying seven goals, four assists and 11 points in 12 games, including a three-game point streak (2G-2A) to finish the month.
A native of Kitchener, Ontario, Payerl has split his five OHL seasons between Belleville and the Barrie Colts. In 302 career regular-season contests, Payerl has notched 58 goals, 82 assists, 140 points and 299 penalty minutes. He’s added one assist in 10 career postseason contests. Prior to this season, Payerl’s best year came in 2009-10 with Belleville when he had 17 goals and 43 points in 67 games with the Bulls.
Big-sized grinding type from the Belleville Bulls. I'm sold.
I like that Shero is always on the lookout for players who have good years but went undrafted. Few GMs pay that much attention. Maybe I'm just a sucker for OHL players. I'm probably just a sucker for these sick jerseys.
If they were going to sign a guy like this I'd have preferred they sign a guy like Mike Halmo since he's down a weight class but a much better player. Then again, Halmo may be accounted for already.
Never hurts to sign guys with pro friendly games without giving up assets though. The Pens system doesn't have a lot of guys like Payerl, but we'll see if he's got NHL potential or not in the next few seasons.
I'm a bit surprised he got an ELC. Usually Shero gets these guys on ATO's and AHL level deals and then signs them to ELC's if they keep developing. Maybe this guy was in a higher demand though, don't know much about him.
Big-sized grinding type from the Belleville Bulls. I'm sold.
I like that Shero is always on the lookout for players who have good years but went undrafted. Few GMs pay that much attention. Maybe I'm just a sucker for OHL players. I'm probably just a sucker for these sick jerseys.
Also surprised he got 3 years ELC right off the bat. A large human as Bob Errey would say. Hopefully he can skate and dish out some pain without being the anti-particle to offense like Mac. If he's even got the offensive upside of a Talbot type that'd be good enough for me.
Ray apparently wasn't pleased with last night's handling of Nystrom.
Also surprised he got 3 years ELC right off the bat. A large human as Bob Errey would say. Hopefully he can skate and dish out some pain without being the anti-particle to offense like Mac. If he's even got the offensive upside of a Talbot type that'd be good enough for me.
Ray apparently wasn't pleased with last night's handling of Nystrom.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe all 20 year-olds signing ELCs must be for 3 years. The only way the ELC terms go down if it's a player of a certain age (and I don't think that's until a guy is 24 or 25).
The signing reminds me a lot of Joey Haddad...hopefully he turns out better than Haddad did.
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