The Vancouver Canucks, the NHL affiliate of the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, announced on Monday they have signed defenseman Joe Rullier to an NHL contract.
Rullier, 26, appeared in 67 AHL games last season betwen the Hartford Wolf Pack and the Manchester Monarchs, setting career highs with eight goals, 23 assists and 31 points, while adding 160 penalty minutes. He recorded three assists in Manchester’s seven-game playoff loss to Hartford in the Atlantic Division semifinals.
Rullier, originally a fifth-round draft choice by Los Angeles in 1998, has totaled 20 goals and 57 assists for 77 points, along with 1,129 penalty minutes, in 398 career AHL games over six seasons with Manchester, Hartford and Lowell. He finished fifth in the league with 322 PIM in 2004-05.
The Canucks also re-signed forward Lee Goren to a new contract on Monday.
Goren, 28, appeared in 28 games last season with Vancouver, scoring a goal and collecting a pair of assists. After being re-assigned to the Moose on Dec. 30, the Winnipeg native tallied 22 goals and 19 assists for 41 points in 42 AHL games.
In 13 Calder Cup Playoff games, Goren recorded three goals and seven assists for 10 points.
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Lee Goren averaged nearly a point per game with the Moose in 2005-06.
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In his first season with the Moose in 2004-05, Goren set new franchise records with 16 power-play goals and a plus-24 rating. In the playoffs that year, Goren was Manitoba’s leading goal-scorer with 10. He was Manitoba’s nominee for the Yanick Dupre Memorial Award as the AHL’s man of the year, and was the winner of the Moose’s team community service award for 2005.
In 376 career AHL games with Manitoba, San Antonio and Providence, Goren has registered 139 goals and 152 assists for 291 points. He has added five goals and four assists in 65 career NHL contests with Vancouver, Florida and Boston.
Goren was a third-round draft choice by Boston in 1997.
The Canucks also announced the signings of defensemen Alex Edler and Shaun Heshka and forward Jannik Hansen to National Hockey League contracts.
Edler, 20, appeared in 62 games in his first season with the Kelowna Rockets (WHL) in 2005-06. He tallied 13 goals and 40 assists for 53 points, finishing fifth in the league in scoring among defensemen. Vancouver’s third-round choice in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, the native of Ostersund, Sweden, added three goals and five assists in 12 playoff games for Kelowna.
Heshka, who turns 21 this week, spent three seasons with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips. Last season, the Melville, Sask., native scored 10 goals and 49 assists for 59 points to finish second in the entire league in scoring among defensemen. Heshka finished up his junior career with 25 goals and 82 assists for 107 points and 137 penalty minutes in 204 career WHL games.
Hansen, 20, made his WHL debut in 2005-06 and registered 24 goals and 40 assists for 64 points in 53 games for Portland. The native of Herlev, Denmark, finished second in team scoring in the regular season, and added seven goals and six assists for 13 points in 12 postseason games. Hansen was a ninth-round choice by Vancouver in the 2004 draft.
