Szyd Is Back

Fort Wayne, IN -- The Komets announced Monday that last season's ECHL MVP and the Komets' leading scorer Shawn Szydlowski has returned to the United States after a brief stint in Europe and rejoined the Fort Wayne club.

Szydlowski, 28, will be returning to the Komets for his sixth season.  Last year the St. Clair Shores, Michigan native scored 31 goals and career highs of 48 assists, 79 points and +39 in 64 games to capture the ECHL scoring championship. It was his third season as Fort Wayne's leading scorer.  Szydlowski also led the Komets in the post season with 13 assists and ranked second with 17 points.

The two-time Fort Wayne MVP and Defensive Forward of the Year started this season skating in 11 games with Frisk Asker in Norway posting four goals and seven points.  Szydlowski is the last Fort Wayne player to have reached 50 assists in a season when he hit the mark in 2015-16. The right winger has scored at least 25 goals in each of his last four seasons in Fort Wayne.

Szydlowski will be logging his eighth season in the ECHL and has amassed career totals of 131 goals, 192 assists, 323 points and 348 penalty minutes in 302 games, all with Fort Wayne with the exception of six games with Gwinnett (1g, 2a) in his rookie season 2011-12. 

Prior to turning pro, Szydlowski completed a four-year stint in the OHL with Erie before making his pro debut skating two AHL games with Portland at the end of the 2010-11 season before signing a three-year entry level NHL agreement with the Buffalo Sabres.  In addition to Portland, Szydlowski has appeared in stints with Rochester, Binghamton, Lake Erie, Norfolk and Cleveland for a career total of 80 AHL games.

Komets acquire Jake Kamrass for Garret Ross-- The Komets also announced that they have acquired forward Jake Kamrass from the South Carolina Stingrays in a trade for forward Garret Ross.  Kamrass, 24, skated 10 games this season with South Carolina scoring five goals and eight points.  The Atlanta, Georgia native completed a four-year collegiate stint with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell in the NCAA (Hockey East) in 2016-17 and won the NCAA Championship with the River Hawks in 2017.  Kamrass made his pro debut last year at the end of the season appearing in 12 games potting five goals and 14 points with South Carolina.

In additional player moves the Komets have traded the rights to forward Thomas Ebbing to the ECHL's Greenville Swamp Rabbits for future considerations. 

Komets head for South Dakota-- The Komets will skate a three-game series at Rapid City this week beginning Wednesday. Games are also slated for Friday and Saturday.  All three matches start at 9:05pm ET.  Shane Albahrani will be on hand to call the action on WOWO Radio AM 1190 and FM 107.5.  The games will also be streamed live at Komets.com.

Next home game Thanksgiving night-- The Komets will return to the Memorial Coliseum for the annual Bob Chase Memorial Thanksgiving game against the Brampton Beast at 7:30pm.  It will be the 58th Thanksgiving night game in Fort Wayne where the Komets are 36-17-2-2 after scoring a 5-4 victory over Toledo last year on the holiday.

Komet Hockey Tickets-- Single game tickets for Komet regular season home games are on sale at the Coliseum Ticket Office.  Season Tickets also remain on sale at the Komet office at 1010 Memorial Way.  For more information visit Komets.com or call 260-483-0011.