The Nashville Predators, parent club of the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals, announced on Thursday that they have signed forward Shane Willis and goaltender Dan Ellis to one-year contracts, and also re-signed defenseman Nolan Yonkman to a one-year contract.
Willis, 30, posted 20 goals and 23 assists for 43 points in 43 AHL games with Albany in 2006-07. The Edmonton native has recorded 112 goals and 127 assists for 239 points in 286 career AHL contests. He won the Dudley "Red" Garrett Award as the AHL’s outstanding rookie and was also a First Team AHL All-Star in 1998-99.
Willis has registered 74 points (31g, 43a) in 174 career NHL games with Carolina and Tampa Bay.
Ellis, 27, ranked fourth in the AHL in wins in 2006-07, going 30-21-1 with a 2.78 goals-against average in 55 games with the Iowa Stars. The native of Orangeville, Ont., native has a career AHL record of 61-67-2 with nine shutouts in 140 career AHL contests.
He was Dallas’s second-round selection, 60th overall, in the 2000 Entry Draft.
Yonkman, 26, registered 13 points (3g, 10a) and 113 penalty minutes in 77 games with Milwaukee in 2006-07. The 6-foot-6, 236-pound blueliner has eight goals and 20 assists in 202 career AHL games, and one goal and seven assists in 50 career NHL games.
Yonkman was selected in the second round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft by Washington.
