With the Wheeling Nailers last few announcements being players returning from last season’s team, they chose to change things up and announce Chris Ortiz will return for a second stint, having played the 2023-24 season with the Trois-Rivieres Lions.
The left-shot defenseman completed his third season as a professional player this past season. With the Lions, Ortiz notched four goals and a career high 33 assists in 69 games during the regular season. In the Lions first-round matchup in the Kelly Cup Playoffs against the Norfolk Admirals, Ortiz tallied four assists in six games.
Throughout his ECHL career, Ortiz has played 167 games, tallying 20 goals and 87 assists with a +2 goal differential rating. In his first stint with the Nailers from 2021-2023, Ortiz earned the opportunity to play in the AHL for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins where he played 23 games, notching one goal and four assists. Since first entering the league, Ortiz has solid foot and stick work, not only in the defensive zone but the neutral zone as well. Ortiz is well disciplined to not reach with his stick to get caught out of position. He does a good job at making sure he is closing the gap to make it harder on the offense to enter the zone. His ability to read the play has allowed him to jump up in the play to be an extra passing option.
Ortiz road to professional hockey took him through the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League where he was drafted 7th overall in the first round in the 2017 QMJHL Entry Draft by the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. He played with Drakkar for three and a half seasons, being assistant captain his final two seasons there, and half his final season with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. In his four seasons in the QMJHL, Ortiz tallied 20 goals and 109 assists in 231 games played during the regular season. Through the QMJHL playoffs, Ortiz played 21 games in three seasons, notching one goal and nine assists. Ortiz was named to the QMJHL All-Star team during the 2019-20 season for the Jr Super Series tournament. He was also part of the 2017-18 Canada Red U17 team that won silver at the World Hockey Championships.
