The Florida Everblades have announced that they have signed forward Colton Hargrove to a contract for the 2024-25 season. Hargrove has spent the last two seasons with the Allen Americans, putting up 39 goals and 46 assists for 86 points during the 2022-23 season and put up six goals and eight assists for 14 points in 12 games last season before suffering a season-ending knee injury. He put up six goals and three assists for nine points in 11 games during the 2023 Kelly Cup Playoffs. The Texas native was named captain of the Americans in February 2023.
Prior to going pro, Hargrove played three seasons in the NCAA with Western Michigan University, where he put up 34 goals and 28 assists for 62 points in 105 games. The former seventh-round pick of the Boston Bruins would spend four seasons in the AHL, which included three years with the Providence Bruins and a year with the Texas Stars, where he would put up 51 goals and 62 assists for 113 points in 259 games. The 32-year-old forward would spend two years overseas, which included a year in Italy, where he put up seven goals, and 24 assists for 31 points in 47 games, and a year in Hungary, where he put up 16 goals and 22 assists for 38 points in 46 games before taking the 2022-23 season off before joining Allen. This is a massive signing for the Everglades if Hargrove can return to form prior to his injury and could be one of the team’s top scorers next season. He is easily a guy who can fit in the top six. He is the second former captain signed by the Everblades after they signed Connor Doherty earlier this off-season
