Toledo fan favorite Brandon Hawkins and the Walleye have agreed to terms to have Hawkins return to the Walleye for the upcoming 2023-2024 ECHL season.
Hawkins returns to the Walleye for his third year with the team after scoring 81 points(39G,42A) in 66 games played last year. Last season, the Michigan native set a franchise single-season record for goals, while his 81 points were second most in a single year for Toledo.
Due to a very successful season for Hawkins, he was named to the ECHL first team for 2022-2023. The 29-year-old played his college hockey at Bowling Green State University and Northeastern University. In 2014-2016, he played at Bowling Green for 80 games, racking up 29 goals and 29 assists, good for 58 points. He took a year off in 2016-2017 and resumed the following year with Northeastern for two seasons, playing 61 games and grabbing 50 points(17G,33A).
During his final year, he went to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for five games, grabbing two goals. Hawkins made his ECHL debut in 2019-2020 when he played for the Wheeling Nailers as he played 47 games, getting 16 goals and 17 assists for 33 points before the Covid Pandemic halted play for the season.
In his playing career in the ECHL, Hawkins has played 202 games, racking up 217 points, which is good for 1.07 pts per game on average. Hawkins was a key contributor in the 2022 Kelly Cup Finals run, grabbing 15 goals and 18 assists, which was good for 33 points in 21 games.
