Good afternoon, everyone!
First up, we have some former Crunchie news:
- St. Louis has signed Andrew Murray to a one-year, two-way contract.
We also have some breaking Syracuse Crunch/Tampa news:
- The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed defenseman Matt Taormina to a one-year, two-way contract today.
Taormina’s stats are kind of odd, but Tampa Bay’s release had this to say about him: Taormina, 5-foot-9, 190 pounds, has played in 47 career NHL games with the New Jersey Devils during the previous two seasons, recording four goals and 12 points with a plus-4 rating. Taormina has played in 199 career AHL games with the Binghamton Senators, Lowell Devils and Albany River Rats. He has registered 18 goals and 71 points, including a career-high 16 goals and 66 points in 2009-10. That season he led all Lowell defensemen, and was third on the team, with 10 goals and 50 points. Those totals were the most by a rookie in franchise history. Taormina also set a franchise record with 32 power-play points with eight goals and 24 assists.
Bolt Prospects (and if you aren’t following them–what the hell?! Get on that!) had this to say about him: It looks as though Taormina is the puck-moving replacement for Mike Kostka, who signed with the Leafs. He had 50 pts for Lowell 2 yrs ago.
A friend of ours from Albany, Tracey Lake (who blogs for Thoughts Inside the Box), had this to say about him: He was up and down between here and NJ a lot, didn’t play much up there. More a depth guy for the Devils than anything. Depending on what Tampa Bay’s needs are at D, you’ll probably see him in a Crunch uniform.
Should be interesting. Not sure yet if injury kept him out of the game or what last season, still trying to find out more information.
Under the cut we have some merch reviews, one old, one new, both T-shirts. The first is the Tarkki version of the player T’s the Crunch brought back last year. The second is the brand new, hot-off-the-presses Crunchman T!
