The 24 year old becomes the Stingrays fourth new signing of the off-season, joining captain Joshua Mizerek, netminder Christian Boucher and powerful forward Chris Korchinski on the team, and the clubs final forward ahead of their fifth Elite League season.
The native of Mount Forest, Ontario, comes to the UK as a rookie professional having spent three years in NCAA Division 1 at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. In Alabama, he was consistently up there in the scoring charts, finishing second and third in his teams scoring charts in his final two years in the US. It was last season that Coburn particularly flourished, netting seven times and adding 15 assists as UAH for a three year high of 22 points in 33 games after hitting the 13 and 19 point mark in his first two seasons.
"Danton [Cole] told me I couldn't go wrong with Andrew. He's a hard worker and put good number up in his league. He wanted to come to Europe and give it a go...When you go to college you have to work hard every day and not take a day off...I am excited to have him on board."Prior to his stint in Alabama at college the he indeed proved he can put up numbers as he hit 34 goals and 77 points in 60 games in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL), a junior league in the West of Canada.
However, Cloutier clearly believes in Coburn's ability to put up numbers at this level and, as a result, there have been strong suggestions that the Canadian will link up on one of the top two lines alongside Brit Lee Mitchell and leading forward Korchinski, theoretically replacing sniper and former player-assistant coach Curtis Huppe.
The former UAH #10 is excited to be starting his professional career in the UK and believes he can potentially fill in the spot left by Huppe's departure.
"I am very excited about signing with the Hull Stingrays..I am really looking forward to my first year as a pro. Four years of juggling school and hockey has been demanding, now I can devote all of my attention to helping the team win and better myself as a player..I feel as though I can help Hull put up more wins and being surrounded by quality player I feel as though I can make an impact."While the club now looks to have completed its forward lines, with three lines and one extra player signed, it remains to be seen whether Cloutier goes for strength in numbers and signs one or two more British players as injury reserves.
Nevertheless, news of the official signings of Coburn and netminder Christian Boucher all but confirms the rumours that Cloutier has had his side in place for quite some time and, as such, perhaps no more players will be added to the clubs fire power.
Those very same rumours have also suggested that the Stingrays will complete their squad for the 10/11 Elite League season with former Basingstoke defenceman Trevor Read and tough blueliner Matt Suderman.
