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West Valley City, Utah - The Utah Grizzlies open their training camp for the 2006-2007 season Friday at 10:00 a.m. at the Acord Ice Center. All practices are open to the public. Utah's home opener is Friday, October 27 versus Las Vegas. The team opens the regular season on the road Friday, October 20 at Phoenix.
The Grizzlies return eight players from last year, including two of their four leading scorers. Ryan Kinasewich finished tied for the league lead with 39 goals and Matt Craig tallied 27 goals and 27 assists in 54 games during his rookie season. Blue liners Ian Forbes, Ed Hill and Eric Nelson are also back along with energy liners Travis Rycroft, West Valley native D.J. Jelitto and Brad Herauf who led the ECHL with 344 penalty minutes.
Utah Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations Jason Christie has also announced the signing of goaltender Sean Fields who will join former Vancouver Canucks' netminder Rob McVicar between the pipes. Fields, who last year was twice named the ECHL's goaltender of the week, joins Utah after spending the season with Gwinnett. The Gladiators finished second in the league after falling in the Kelly Cup Championship to Alaska. Fields recorded 32 regular season wins last year, finishing 4th in the ECHL. The two goaltenders combined for 48 wins during the 2005-2006 season.
Also returning to Utah for the fifth time in six years is veteran Justin Cox who split last year in San Antonio of the AHL and as an assistant captain with Idaho. The British Columbia native was named the Grizzlies "Trash Talker of the Year" four times from 2001-2005.
The Grizzlies have also announced that defenseman Taylor Christie will be on the training camp roster after being acquired from Phoenix in September.
Individual game tickets for the Grizzlies go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. at the E-Center box office, all Smith's Tix locations and at UtahGrizzlies.com
The Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL, enter their second season in America's "Premier AA Hockey League." There are currently 23 former Utah Grizzlies players on NHL rosters. The Grizzlies are owned and operated by the Elmore Sports Group and play at the E-Center of West Valley City, which hosted hockey during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Also on the Roster Jason Bone-RW Gordon Burnett Ed Campbell-D Cory Caouette-LW Matt English-D Matt Hanson-D Brendan Hutchinson-D Jimmie Kraft-C Tobias Liberg-D Gordon Burnett-D Jeff Marler-RW Ryan Olynyk-D Eric Przepiorka-LW Blake Robson-RW Andy Sertich-LW Dave Simoes-D Ray Smegal-C Brandon Tidball-LW Mike Wirll-RW Mike Zbriger-LW Mikael Zettergren-RW
