Stoddard Signs With RiverKings
The Mississippi RiverKings of the Central Hockey League have announced the signing of right-winger Darrell Stoddard to play in the 2008-09 season. The 26-year old Stoddard will be entering his fourth professional season, all with the RiverKings. He becomes the third announced signing under new coach Kevin Kaminski.
In three previous seasons with the RiverKings, Stoddard has scored 37 goals and has 93 points in 180 games. 16 of his 37 goals have come on the power play, one has been shorthanded and four goals were game-winners.
The 5-foot-11, 195-pound native of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada played in 62 games for the RiverKings last season, scoring six goals and assisting on 14 others for 20 points. Not afraid to mix it up when needed, Stoddard also collected 165 penalty minutes in last season’s campaign, putting him third on the roster in that category.
Half of Darrell’s goal scoring came in the month of December, when he scored three goals and added four assists for a total of seven points. He did the most damage against Corpus Christi last year with one goal and three assists for four points.
Last year in the playoffs, Stoddard scored an empty-netter to finish off a 6-3 win over Texas in the first game of that best-of-three series.
Darrell’s most-productive professional season came in his first year with the RiverKings (2005-06), when he scored 18 goals and added 23 assists for 41 points. Darrell also tacked on 184 penalty minutes, all coming in 60 games. He scored points in ten of the last 14 games of that season, including a two-goal, four-point night against Austin in a 7-1 victory on March 24th, 2006.
The next season, Stoddard played in only 58 games for the Memphis RiverKings, but still garnered 13 goals and 32 points to go with 109 penalty minutes. He added a goal and two assists in 18 games of the playoffs.
Stoddard made his junior hockey mark in the Alberta Junior Hockey League in 2002-03, when he scored 30 goals and 61 points with 198 penalty minutes for the Camrose Kodiaks. Darrell went on to play collegiately in Alberta for one year before the start of his pro career with the RiverKings. He also played a total of eight games over two seasons with Spokane in the Western Hockey League before playing in Camrose.
Stoddard’s honors include being the 2001 Royal Bank Cup (Canadian National Junior ‘A’ Championship) Most Valuable Player, an Alberta Junior Hockey League All-Star and an ACAC first team all-star in his one season of college hockey at South Alberta Institute of Technology.
RiverKings’ Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations Kevin Kaminski appreciates the “lunch-bucket” attitude Stoddard brings to the rink on a daily basis. “Darrell brings a great work ethic, pays the price, leads by example, and knows his role,” Kaminski said. “We also will be looking for him to chip in offensively.”
Tags: RiverKings, Stoddard
