Reigning ECHL MVP Szydlowski returns to Komets

Fort Wayne, Ind. -The Fort Wayne Komets announced that last season's ECHL Most Valuable Player and leading scorer Shawn Szydlowski has returned to the United States after a brief stint in Europe and rejoined the Fort Wayne club.

Szydlowski, 28, will be returning to the Komets for his sixth season. Last year, the St. Clair Shores, Michigan native scored 31 goals and career highs of 48 assists, 79 points and +39 in 64 games to capture the ECHL scoring championship. It was his third season as Fort Wayne's leading scorer. Szydlowski also led the Komets in the postseason with 13 assists and ranked second with 17 points.

The two-time Fort Wayne MVP and Defensive Forward of the Year started this season skating in 11 games with Frisk Asker in Norway posting seven points (4g-3a). Szydlowski is the last Fort Wayne player to have reached 50 assists in a season when he hit the mark in 2015-16. The right winger has scored at least 25 goals in each of his last four seasons in Fort Wayne.

Szydlowski will be logging his eighth season in the ECHL and has amassed 323 points (131g-192a) and 348 penalty minutes in 302 games, all with Fort Wayne with the exception of six games with Gwinnett (1g-2a) in his rookie season in 2011-12. 

Prior to turning pro, Szydlowski completed a four-year stint in the Ontario Hockey League with Erie before making his pro debut skating two American Hockey League games with Portland at the end of the 2010-11 season before signing a three-year entry level NHL agreement with the Buffalo Sabres. In addition to Portland, Szydlowski has appeared in stints with Rochester, Binghamton, Lake Erie, Norfolk and Cleveland for a career total of 80 AHL games.