Royals Agree to Terms with Defenseman Bryant Molle

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League, today announced that the team has agreed to terms with defenseman Bryant Molle. He joins forwards Sean Wiles and Kevin Walrod as the third player announced as signed by the Royals to an ECHL Standard Players Contract for the 2014-15 season. Consistent with team policy, terms of the SPC were not released.

Video of Head Coach Larry Courville’s comments regarding the signing of Molle can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h75ZvwEZZmQ.

This will mark Molle’s third stint with the Royals. Last season, Molle (6’3/221) (26), who hails from Anchorage, Alaska, registered a career high eleven assists in sixty-seven games for the Royals. The fourth year pro also led the Royals with 100 penalty minutes, which included a team-leading ten fighting majors. Molle, who was named the team’s V&M Towing Defensive Player of the Year, also played to a plus-18 (+18) last season, which led all defensemen on the team. Molle picked up four penalty minutes in the Royals’ five post-season games.

In his first season with Reading, 2012-13, Molle recorded nine assists and ninety-three penalty minutes in fifty-four regular season games with the team. Molle, who was named the team’s Unsung Hero that year, played to a plus-18 (+18) during the regular season. In 121 career regular season games with the Royals, he has now played to a collective plus-36 (+36), which is tied (with Ethan Cox) as the all-time career team leader in that category. His 193 total penalty minutes with Reading is sixteenth all-time (four PIMs behind Head Coach Larry Courville), and his eighteen total fighting majors is fifth in the Royals’ all-time record book.

Molle, who was a critical member of the Royals 2013 Kelly Cup Championship team, also won a championship in his rookie season, 2011-12, as a member of the Fort Wayne Komets club that captured the Central Hockey League’s Ray Miron President’s Cup Championship. During the regular season that year, he recorded six points (1g-5a) and 144 penalty minutes and played to a plus-23 (+23) in sixty games for the Komets.

Prior to turning pro, Molle played collegiately at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. In his senior season, Molle, who served as an alternate captain for the Nanooks, received the team’s Most Dedicated Player and Unsung Hero awards and was a finalist in the nationwide Derek Hines Unsung Hero Award presented by the Hockey Commissioners Association annually at the NCAA’s Frozen Four Tournament. At the conclusion of his senior year, Molle was named as the Central Collegiate Hockey Association’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as well as a Lowe’s Second Team All-Senior All-American.

Season Tickets for the 2014-15 Reading Royals ECHL season are currently available. Call 610-898-7825 for more information or log onto www.royalshockey.com.