Ontario Reign’s Spurgeon Returns to AHL

Dec 3, 2014

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(Photo credit: Ken Campanelli)

One of the Ontario Reign‘s royals has officially left his throne. Edmonton, Alberta native Tyler Spurgeon signed a professional tryout contract with the American Hockey League’s Adirondack Flames.

This will be the first time that Spurgeon will be returning to the AHL since the 2009-10 season when he finished the year with the Abbotsford Heat. Since then, he has been on fire with the Reign. He played 12 games this year and racked up a total of 10 points with two goals and eight assists.

If his stats from both the AHL and ECHL are combined, it is no wonder why the Flames were so impressed by him. In the 246 matches combined from both leagues, he has a total of 155 points and 96 penalty minutes. Spurgeon also spent time playing for Klagenfurt AC of the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga in Austria and recorded 64 points and 55 penalty minutes in the total of 105 games he played.

The 28-year-old center was automatically welcomed back by Flames head coach Ryan Huska. According to Huska, he really liked Spurgeon’s play during training camp but when the recalls came around and the Flames needed a forward, Spurgeon was already injured. Now that he is officially signed, that means the crowd will get a feel for his technique and see him improve even more while he gets significantly more playing time. It all worked out for the best for everyone involved.

Spurgeon’s future in the game is only getting bigger from this point on. Before actually turning pro, the 5-foot-11, 190-pound player spent his junior career with the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League from 2001-06. In 212 games, he scored a total of 124 points and 99 penalty minutes. He also was an eighth round selection (#242 overall) by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.

There is no doubt that Spurgeon will become a fan favorite with the Flames. In the Dec. 2 game against the Hamilton Bulldogs, he was already able to get the hang of all of the fast changes and recorded two shots on goal. The Flames’ next game against the Texas Stars on Dec. 5 will be an even better game to see Spurgeon really in action and the rest of the season should not be missed for all of Spurgeon’s old and new-coming fans.