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Brust, Schaefer Win
AHL’s Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award

April 17, 2008

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The American Hockey League announced that former Reading goaltender Barry Brust (pictured) and former Fresno goaltender Nolan Schaefer have won the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award for 2007-08.

Since 1972 the award has been presented to the goaltender(s) appearing in at least 25 games for the team allowing the fewest goals in the regular season.

It is the seventh season in a row and the 12th time in the last 15 years that the award has been won or shared by a former ECHL goaltender.

Brust and Schaefer play for the Houston Aeros who allowed 183 goals, finishing 45-29-6 and advancing to the Calder Cup Playoffs for the sixth time in seven seasons. Schaefer was 19-13-0 and led the AHL with a goals-against average of 2.06 while finishing tied for second with six shutouts and fourth in save percentage with .924. Brust appeared in a career-high 43 games and was 24-16-3 while ranking sixth in the league with a goals-against average of 2.27.

Former ECHL goaltenders who have won or shared the award are Martin Biron (1999), Mathieu Chouinard (2002), Byron Dafoe (1994), Milan Hnilicka (2000), Dieter Kochan (2004), Olaf Kolzig (1994), Jason LaBarbera (2007 and 2005), Simon Lajeunesse (2002), Marc Lamothe (2003), Manny Legace (1996), Joey MacDonald (2003), Dany Sabourin (2006), Corey Schwab (1995) and Steve Valiquette (2005).

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the AHL, marking the seventh consecutive season that it has had affiliations with 20 or more teams in the AHL. In the last six seasons the ECHL has had more call ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with more than 2,300 call ups involving more than 1,200 players. In each of the last three seasons there have been more than 225 players who have played in both the ECHL and the AHL in the same season. The AHL has nine former ECHL coaches who are head coaches and 14 others who are assistant coaches while almost 500 players with ECHL experience have played in the league this season.

In his rookie season in 2004-05, the 24-year-old Brust was second in the ECHL with a goals-against average of 1.96 while going 27-9-4 with four shutouts and a save percentage of .928 in 42 regular season games for Reading. In the Kelly Cup Playoffs he was 4-4 and finished second with a goals-against average of 1.74 and two shutouts while ranking third with a save percentage of .943 and fifth with 233 saves and 481 minutes. He was 3-3-0 with a goals-against average of 3.00 and a save percentage of .906 in six games for the Royals in 2005-06 while going 19-14-1 with two shutouts, a goals-against average of 2.71 and a save percentage of .916 in 35 games for Manchester.

The 28-year-old Schaefer was 5-5-0 with a goals-against average of 3.12 and a save percentage of .910 in 12 games as a rookie with Fresno in 2003-04 while also playing in the AHL with Cleveland where he was 14-9-3 with a goals-against average of 2.34 and a save percentage of .925 in 27 games.

Seven times in the last eight years the winner of the AHL Coach of the Year award has been a former ECHL coach including the last three selections with Scott Gordon, Mike Haviland and Kevin Dineen. Former ECHL coaches won the award four consecutive years from 2001-04 with Don Granato, Bruce Cassidy, Geoff Ward and Claude Noel. The first former ECHL coach to win the award was current Carolina Hurricanes head coach Peter Laviolette in 1999.

For the 18th year in a row in 2007 there was a former ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion as Hamilton had a record 12 players with ECHL experience on its roster.

Former ECHL players won the CCM/AHL Player of the Month award in November (Martin St. Pierre), December (Pascal Pelletier) and January (Grant Stevenson). Trevor Smith, who played in the ECHL with Utah this season, was the Rbk Edge/AHL Rookie of the Month for January while John Curry, who played this year for both Las Vegas and Wheeling, was the winner in December. The Rbk Hockey/AHL Player of the Week award was won eight times by former ECHL players.

ECHL
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2007-08, the ECHL is the Premier ‘AA’ Hockey League and the third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League.

ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league with 25 teams playing 900 games in 17 states and British Columbia in 2007-08.

The league officially changed its name to ECHL on May 19, 2003. The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the NHL in 2007-08, marking the 11th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.

There have been 355 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including 99 in the last three seasons. There have been 210 former ECHL players who have played their first game in the NHL in the past seven seasons.

There are 15 coaches in the NHL who have ECHL experience including former Wheeling coach Peter Laviolette, who is head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, and former Mississippi coach Bruce Boudreau, who is head coach of the Washington Capitals.

The ECHL is represented for the seventh consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team in 2007 with Anaheim assistant coach Dave Farrish, players Francois Beauchemin and George Parros and broadcasters John Ahlers and Steve Carroll.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the American Hockey League in 2007-08 and for the past 18 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion.

In each of the last two seasons there have been more than 225 players who have played in both the ECHL and the AHL and there were over 800 call-ups involving more than 500 players. In the last five seasons the ECHL has had more call-ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with over 2,000 call-ups involving more than 1,000 players since 2002-03.

Further information on the ECHL is available from its website at ECHL.com.

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