Marlies pick up two ECHLers on tryouts as we await cuts in the NHL

Goalie Mitch Gillam from the Wichita Thunder and winger Regan Nagy from the Alen Americans  are joining the Marlies for training camp.

Last week, when Kasimir Kaskisuo was waived, Brandon Halverson was also sent to the Marlies, giving them three goalies in total with Ian Scott and Maksim Zhukov. Kaskisuo, assuming he’s been loaned to the Marlies, makes four, and now Gillam is a fifth.

Gillam is 26 and from Peterborough, Ontario, but went the NCAA route, playing four years at Cornell. He has two full seasons in the ECHL with the Worcester Railers, one very good and one good, and he signed with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL (New York Islanders) in July. The assumption seems to be he would play with Bridgeport’s ECHL affiliate in Wichita.

Nagy is 22, which is young for the ECHL, and he is from Ogema, Saskatchewan. He played junior hockey with the Victoria Royals and then did one year last year at the University of Calgary. He’s a pro hockey rookie, but he signed a contract just last week with the Americans of the ECHL. He’s a right-shooting right wing who suddenly scored a lot in his last two years in the WHL after failing to impress before that. That final year saw him traded to the Prince Albert Raiders for their playoff run, so he knows Ian Scott.

It’s not clear if the AHL and ECHL portions of the Marlies training camp will be split up sooner rather than later, but they certainly have enough goalies to handle things now. It’s common for AHL teams to flesh out their ranks with ECHL players in camp as they await the end of NHL training camp to receive all their NHL-contracted players back. The Newfoundland Growlers use a roster very heavy on AHL-contracted players and have only seven players under direct contract so far.