Promotion
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Royals Agree to Terms with Forward Brandon Blandina

Royals Agree to Terms with Forward Brandon Blandina

Wednesday, August 6th
Royals Agree to Terms with Forward Brandon Blandina

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL, today announced that the team has agreed to terms with forward Brandon Blandina. He is the tenth player announced as signed by the Royals to an ECHL Standard Players Contract for the 2014-15 season, joining forwards Kyle Bodie, Ryan Cruthers, Brock Higgs, Adam Hughesman, Domenic Monardo, Kevin Walrod and Sean Wiles and defensemen Jordan Heywood and Bryant Molle. Consistent with team policy, terms of the SPC were not released.

Video comments of Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations Larry Courville on the signing of Blandina can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvDjZcStlNc.

Last year, Blandina (6’0/200) (25), who was born in Centennial, Colorado, started the season with the Elmira Jackals, where he recorded one assist in eight games before being released in late November. He then joined the Royals and proceeded to rack up a career high twenty-three points (7g-16a) while playing to a plus-15 (+15) in fifty-five games with Reading. Blandina, who led the Royals with three short-handed goals, recorded thirty-four penalty minutes with the team, which included three fighting majors. Blandina added a goal and an assist in three post-season games with the Royals. His goal in playoffs was a late third tie-breaker in the only post-season win for Reading last year. At the conclusion of the season, Blandina’s work ethic, consistent energetic performance and enthusiasm earned him the team’s ‘Heart Award’.

This will actually Blandina’s fourth stint with the Royals. In the 2012-13 Kelly Cup championship, he played four games in two separate stints with Reading without registering any points or penalty minutes. That year, he also had a pair of stints in Elmira, scoring seven goals, assisting on eleven others (eighteen points) and registering twenty-one penalty minutes for the Jackals. At the end of that season, Blandina was selected as the Jackals’ team Rookie of the Year. In his two years of pro, Blandina has compiled forty-two career points (14g-28a) and fifty-nine penalty minutes in 110 pro games. Prior to turning pro, Blandina had a four year collegiate career at Robert Morris University where he registered thirty-eight points (11g-27a) and fifty-six penalty minutes in 133 games with the Colonials.

The Royals open the 2014-15 season on Saturday, October 18, at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, West Virginia, where the team will face the Wheeling Nailers. The home portion of the schedule will kick off the following Saturday (October 25, 2014 @ 7:05 pm) when the Elmira Jackals will travel to Santander Arena. Royals’ season tickets are currently available. Call 610-898-7825 for more information or log onto www.royalshockey.com.