Royals Agree to Terms with Defenseman Adam Comrie

Reading, PA – The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League, today announced that the team has signed defenseman Adam Comrie to an ECHL Standard Players Contract. Comrie has been added to the Royals’ training camp roster and is expected to skate with the team today. In a separate transaction, the Royals also added Sean Wiles to the team’s training camp roster. Wiles was released from AHL camp with the Springfield Falcons yesterday.

This will mark the second stint in Reading for Comrie (6’4/219) (24), a fifth year pro from Ashburn, Virginia, who last season registered nineteen points (3g-16a) and thirty-eight penalty minutes in fifty-six games with the Worcester Sharks of the AHL. Comrie’s first stint with Reading was nothing short of spectacular, as he was a significant contributor to the team’s 2012-13 Kelly Cup Championship, although he was long gone to the AHL by the time the Royals captured the playoff championship.

That season, Comrie started the year with Reading and racked up thirty-three points (17g-16a) in forty-five games prior to being loaned to Worcester on February 5, 2013. Despite spending that last two months of the regular season in the AHL, Comrie’s seventeen goals still ended up leading all defensemen in the ECHL. Comrie, whose thirty-three points was tied for the league lead amongst d-men in the ECHL at the time of his loan to Worcester, ended up leading the Royals in 2012-13 with 106 penalty minutes, which included a team record thirty-nine PIMs in his final game with the team on February 2, 2013, in Toledo. He also led the team by playing to a plus-22 (+22) in his time in the ECHL.

The special moments for Comrie in his previous stint with the Royals included bagging the game winning goal in four consecutive victories for the Royals (over a span of five games) from January 18 through January 27, 2013. As of that time, he was only the second player in team history to accomplish that feat (Colin Pepperall had also done it over a span of nine games in the 2002-03 season). In a somewhat bizarre twist that season, Stanislav Galiev also proceeded to score the game winning goal in four straight wins for the Royals—over a span of nine games—immediately after Comrie did it (from February 1 through February 14, 2013).

After the completion of the 2012-13 ECHL regular season, Comrie became the one of only five players in Royals’ team history to be honored with a post-season league award when he was selected to the ECHL’s All-Second Team. (The others who have been bestowed with post-season awards are Michal Cajkovsky, who was selected to the league’s All-Rookie Team last season; David Vallorani, who was selected to the 2012-13 ECHL All-Rookie Team; and T.J. Kemp who was selected to the 2005-06 All-Rookie Team.)

A third round pick of the Florida Panthers in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, Comrie has recorded forty-eight points (25g-23a) in sixty-five career ECHL games with three different teams. He has played a total of 124 games in the AHL, where he has racked up thirty-nine points (6g-33a) and eighty penalty minutes. Prior to turning pro, Comrie played three seasons of major junior in the Ontario Hockey League, recording ninety-eight points (33g-65a) and 239 penalty minutes in 178 total OHL games.

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 travel to Santander Arena. Royals’ season tickets are currently available. Call 610-898-7825 for more information or log onto www.royalshockey.com.