Victoria acquires rights to Neil Petruic from Elmira

[caps05]

Victoria, BC - The Victoria Salmon Kings, proud affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks and Manitoba Moose, announced today that they have acquired the rights to defenseman Neil Petruic in a trade with the Elmira Jackals.

The Salmon Kings receive the rights to the defenseman from Elmira after the Jackals acquired his rights in a deal with the Stockton Thunder on October 28th.

The 6-1, 200 lb. Petruic has played in two games this season with the Manitoba Moose tallying no points or penalty minutes. In 2008-09 he split time between the AHL's Binghamton Senators and ECHL's Stockton Thunder. The majority of his season was spent with the Senators where he dressed for 64 games scoring eight points (1g-7a) with 62 minutes in penalties. Petruic also played in 14 games for Stockton last season where he scored two goals and two assists for four points with 12 penalty minutes.

The native of Regina, Saskatchewan spent the 2007-08 season in Italy playing for Bolzano HC. In 32 games that campaign Petruic led the Bolzano defence with 11 points (1g-10a) while accruing 62 minutes in penalties. That spring he helped lead Bolzano to the Italian League's RBK Hockey Cup Championship.

The 27-year old Petruic played the 2006-07 season entirely with Binghamton where he scored one goal and assisted on 12 others for 13 points in 74 games, while registering 89 penalty minutes.

In 2005-06 the defenseman split his time between the Senators and the Charlotte Checkers (ECHL). In 51 games in the AHL with Binghamton he scored four points (1g-3a) with 31 minutes in penalties. Playing in 10 games as a Checker, Petruic amassed two goals and four assists for six points with six penalty minutes.

Petruic was selected in the eighth round (#235 overall) of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft by the Ottawa Senators.

For his professional career, Petruic has appeared in 215 games, scoring 35 points (7g-28a) and serving 200 minutes in penalties.

The blueliner's entire four-year junior career was spent with the NCAA's University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. In 157 career games at school, Petruic scored 14 goals and tallied 32 assists for 46 points while accumulating 251 penalty minutes. In his junior year at Minnesota-Duluth (2001-02) Petruic was named the University's rookie of the year.