ECHL: Florida Everblades Begins Building Roster For Next Season

The Florida Everblades are looking to accomplish a feat that is yet to be reached by an ECHL team, and that’s to win three straight Kelly Cup Championships. So far, the Everblades have re-signed three players to extensions and added one new face to the roster. Florida will also be on the hunt for a new assistant coach after Jesse Kallachy took the head coaching job with the Fort Wayne Komets.

Returners

The Florida Everblades will be bringing back Will Calverly, Robert Carpenter, and Andrew Fyten. Calverly joined Florida at the end of last season after finishing his year at Merrimack College, after he spent his first four years of eligibility at RIT; in 38 games with the Warriors, he put up five goals and 15 assists for 20 points. Calverly would only put up a goal and an assist in six games with the Everblades at the end of the regular season but proved to be an assist in the Kelly Cup Playoffs, putting up three goals and two assists, with his third goal being the only goal in game three of the Kelly Cup Finals to give the Everblades a commanding 3-0 lead, three of his five points came in the final five games of the Kelly Cup Playoffs. I would expect Calverly to be a regular in the Everblades lineup heading into next season. Andrew Fyten was another player who joined the Everblades late in the season as he came over from USports and burst onto the scene for the Blades’ he had a goal and an assist in his second ECHL game and then had a stretch where he found the back of the net in four straight games. The Month of April was a tough one for Fyten as he failed to find the scoresheet and would be in and out of the lineup throughout the Kelly Cup Playoffs, playing in only 12 games. Fyten will likely end up on the third line or as a guy who is in and out of the lineup, depending on how the Everblades roster takes shape.

Robert Carpenter had a hot start to the season, putting up four goals and two assists in five games but missed the rest of the season due to an apparent injury.

New Kid On The Block

The Florida Everblades have already added one new face to their roster in, Tommy Apap. The 27-year-old from Bloomington Hills, MI, joins the Blades’ after spending last year in the AHL with the Milwaukee Admirals; in 44 games with the Admirals, Apap put up two goals and five assists for seven points in 44 games. This is a solid move for the Blades’ as Apap has split his time between the ECHL and AHL since he finished his playing time at Michigan St University, where he spent two seasons as an assistant captain and his senior year as the captain of the Spartans. Seeing that Apap hasn’t done much in his time in both the ECHL and AHL, I would expect him to slot in on the second or third line. However, it does help that he can play both up the middle and on the wing.