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Calgary Wranglers new man Riley Damiani is amped for his introduction.
As he put it: “I really feel like I depart a variety of good first impressions.”
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That checks out.
Damiani, in any case, launched himself on the American Hockey League stage by scoring rookie-of-the-year honours on that stepping-stone circuit in 2021.
When tapped for his NHL debut, the feisty centre launched himself with a purpose in his first recreation with the Dallas Stars. That continues to be his lone big-league bury in seven appearances thus far in ‘The Present.’
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Damiani, who turns 24 later this month, joined the Flames group in a minor transfer earlier this week. He was instantly assigned to the Wranglers and can debut in Sunday’s showdown with the Ontario Reign on the Saddledome, an important conflict between two groups with equivalent 29-19-6 data.
“This can be a contemporary begin for me,” stated Damiani, acquired from the Stars in change for fellow farmhand Emilio Pettersen. “I had a variety of good years right here, a while up in Dallas. However my position has modified loads through the years. I’ve needed to do a variety of various things, be put in a variety of totally different spots. I believe I’m simply seeking to get one thing contemporary and type of set up myself because the participant I need to be generally known as. I believe that will probably be actually good for my recreation.”
The Flames’ addition of Damiani is hardly top-of-the-transaction-ticker materials.
Keep in mind, although, that was additionally the case a yr in the past after they welcomed Dryden Hunt in an under-the-radar deadline deal. He’s turned out to be a priceless depth dude.
Damiani might want to show himself with the Wranglers, however he too might make a case for an NHL look. He joins his pal Cole Schwindt — they skate collectively through the summer time months — as the one right-handed pivots in Calgary’s professional pipeline.
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Skating primarily in a third-line position, Damiani has amassed 10 objectives and 23 factors in 53 spins this season with the AHL’s Texas Stars. He arrives with a repute as a preferred teammate, a reliable penalty-killer and a little bit of a pain-in-the-you-know-what for the opposition.
“I’m undoubtedly somewhat ratty,” stated Damiani, who’s listed at 5-foot-10 and 180 lb. “I prefer to piss guys off. I believe that’s after I’m at my finest. However I additionally need to have the ability to hold it between the traces and put up some numbers and be a ability man, as effectively. I believe I’ve that capacity, too.
“I really feel like I’m fairly versatile in that method. I really feel like after I’m stirring it up and type of drawing a crowd in the direction of me, I’m at my finest. I’m trying ahead to with the ability to try this in entrance of the Canadian followers now. I believe they’ll actually admire my recreation.”
Followers in Calgary will need to have been intrigued as they checked Damiani’s credentials after the commerce. His resume is highlighted by that nod because the Dudley (Purple) Garrett Memorial Award winner because the AHL’s most excellent rookie in 2020-21. There are many notable names engraved on that trophy.
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Damiani, who hails from Mississauga, Ont., and began his climb as a fifth-round choose in 2018, averaged precisely a point-per-game throughout that condensed marketing campaign, with 11 objectives and 25 assists in 36 outings as a first-year professional. He tied for third on the leaguewide scoring charts, though the detractors will level out that the AHL expertise pool was thinned by the NHL’s taxi-squad setup.
“That yr, I used to be given a variety of alternative,” Damiani stated. “That was clearly the COVID season and everybody type of places an asterisk on what I used to be in a position to try this yr, however it was nonetheless a very good league, nonetheless the second-best league on this planet, and I used to be in a position to produce in a method that nobody else was at my age and at my time in my profession. I undoubtedly suppose I can get again there and do that very same factor. It’s about alternative and I’m trying ahead to having a brand new alternative right here and getting again to that kind.
“I’ve all the time thought that I can,” he continued when requested about becoming a member of a prolonged listing of previous Purple Garrett Award winners — Tyler Toffoli, Frank Vatrano, Mikko Rantanen, Mason Appleton, Josh Norris, and so on. — now established as mainstays on the highest stage. “That’s all the time been the purpose. I’ve a variety of confidence in what I do. I’ve a variety of confidence in my recreation. It’s simply, you recognize, generally issues go your method and generally they don’t. And I believe, at instances, I’ve perhaps gotten away from what I used to be in a position to do.
“Now, with a contemporary begin, I believe it’s undoubtedly one thing I can get again to. So I’m excited for that, that’s for certain.”
wgilbertson@postmedia.com
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