20 year old McCluskey joins the Rays as a like-for-like replacement for Craig Mitchell, who was today unveiled as a signing for Dan Ceman's Stars, with Mitchell joining brother and former Stingrays forward Lee Mitchell as a summer signing in Dundee.
Their switch along with last week's Stingrays addition of Tristan Cameron-Harper completes a much rumoured four player Tayside-Humberside trade-off of British talent.
McCluskey will come to Hull next season after spending the first six years of his career with hometown side Dundee having made his debut at the age of just 15 in a single appearance in the 05/06 Scottish National League campaign.
With Dundee languishing in the SNL and Northern Hockey League McCluskey had to wait for his chance in the top flight, recording 41 points in 77 games in the process.
He was handed his chance last season at the age of 19 as Dundee stepped up to the Elite League for the first time, and he largely impressed for his tenacious style of play. The Stars clinched the final playoff spot, one place behind the Stingrays, despite starting the year without a win in 15 games and the defenceman recorded two goals and five assists in the process.
His performances over the course of his 52 games season then earned him a selection to the Paul Thompson's preliminary 30 man Great Britain squad for the World Championships, in which GB narrowly missed out on promotion to Pool A for the first time since 1994, and Cloutier was similarly impressed by the Scot's talents:
"Sam had a really good season with Dundee. He is a smart defenceman who skates well and has a good first pass. Sam will be getting plenty of ice time next season and hopefully he can continue to progress. I liked what I saw when we played against Dundee last season. He is a good defenceman with a lot of potential. He was called into the 30-man GB squad for the games against Holland so it shows he is also in Thommo's [GB coach Paul Thompson] thoughts."He is seen as the ideal replacement for the defenceman Mitchell and comes to Hull in a remarkably similar mould to that of the Rays former D-man, who joined the club with just one top flight year in Edinburgh under his belt, albeit the new addition is on the verge of the GB squad already.
If the Rays edge the Craig Mitchell-McCluskey trade-off, due to the pair's age and proximity to the national team, then the Stars edge the forward trade-off with older brother Lee Mitchell on the fringe of the national side. Although Mitchell has been injury prone in recent years and is also two years old than Cameron-Harper, who also has experience abroad, he is similarly on the fringe of the GB squad and has a number of solid years in the Elite League under his belt.
Dundee native McCluskey becomes the Rays third new British signing of the summer after friend and former teammate Cameron-Harper and former Telford Tigers D-man Daniel Scott signed up to the Rays for next season with both likely to receive substantiated ice-time.
Upon this signing Cloutier confirmed to the Hull Daily Mail that the Scot and Chatham born Scott are likely to make up two of a five strong defence once again next year for the Rays alongside three mostly new import blueliners.
While speculation rightly looks to have written off the chances of Latvian Aivars Gaisins and Canadian Trevor Read returning to the club after less than spectacular seasons, the future of standout D-men Drew Bannister and Kurtis Dulle looks less certain with both contemplating retirement.
Either way it looks likely that next years defensive corps will be guarding the net behind Christian Boucher with all signs pointing to a return for the unremarkable but solid tender.
