29 year old American winger Dominic Osman has today become the Excel Hull Stingrays first new import signing for the 11/12 season, joining the club from ECHL side Toledo Walleye.
Last season, in his second full year in the third tier of North American hockey the Michigan native registered ten goals and 25 points in 56 games in Ohio while playing alongside former Stingray favourite and GB international defenceman Dave Phillips.
The Lake Superior State University graduate began his career immediately prior to completing his college degree in fire science in 06/07, signing for the ECHL's Reading Royals, where he was forced to play defence and went on to record no points in a short three game stint to begin his professional career.
Osman then spent his rookie campaign in the CHL with the New Mexico Scorpions immediately troubling the scorers by registering 47 points in 60 games, before moving on to spend the beginning of his sophomore season with the Fort Wayne Comets of the IHL.
Having continued to rack up the points with 18 goals and 30 points in 37 games with the Comets, he was traded in mid-March ahead of the playoffs, moving to the Kalamzaoo Wings alongside teammate Dylan Row in exchange for Wings defenceman Rod Aldoff.
That proved to be a particularly profitable move for the 6'0, 200lbs forward who went on to score an impressive 14 goals in 15 regular season games on a Wings side that earlier in the year had seen now Stingrays record goalscorer Jereme Tendler net five goals in five games.
A move to the ECHL for a first stint with Toledo materialised in 09/10 before a mid-season trade saw him move to Florida in exchange for last season Dundee Stars blueliner Chris Zarb.
Once again the trade benefited the Stingrays newest recruit, who improved from scoring 22 points in 47 games with Toledo to bagging 15 in 20 in the Sunshine State.
He returned to Toledo last season, however, the 29 year old will now move to Hull hoping to recreate the a move from North America that fellow former K-Wing Tendler made last summer.
While a landmark 50 goals may not be expected from Osman, who set his current career best of 24 goals in his rookie year with New Mexico, player-coach Sylvain Cloutier would like him to replace either retired defensive forward Matti Uusivirta or last season's disappointment Konstantin Kalmikov, who between them combined for just 34 goals, 16 fewer than leading scorer Tendler having promised more early last summer.
Cloutier is understandably worried about his side being offensively blunt once again next term but he hopes Osman's signing will begin to ease those worries.
"Last season we had a big lack of secondary scoring. Our second unit struggled to put the puck in the net and at times we were carrying passengers and that hurt us."With 87 goals and 157 points to his name in 235 professional career games thus far, Osman's resume suggests that he should in theory give the Rays another scoring option going forward and, hopefully, one able to regularly backup Tendler, who far too often was relied upon for clinical finishes last term. Cloutier said of his new addition:
"Dominic has a great offensive threat, he has got a great shot, he is a great skater, he competes and never takes a night. He has got some speed, which is something we did not have a lot of last season, and he will relish the bigger ice here."
It is naturally hoped that the drop from four-line hockey to three-line hockey and the subsequent increase in ice-time will give Osman, the Stingrays seventh signing of the summer, the chance to flourish as Tendler did much to everyone's surprise last season.
He joins British defenceman Sam McCluskey and Dan Scott, import forwards Tendler, Sylvain Cloutier and Jason Silverthorn and British forward Tristan Cameron-Harper on the Rays roster for the 11/12 Elite League season.
