The Laval Rocket have turned to next year with three more weeks left in the American Hockey League calendar by signing defenceman Adam Plant to a one-way AHL contract for the 2018-19 season. Plant will also join the team for the rest of this season.
Plant was part of a very successful program at the University of Denver for four years, during which the team rose to championship glory in 2017 winning the NCAA tournament. They were also heavily favourite this season after winning their Conference championship, but were beaten by Ohio State who advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four.
Plant is a 5’10”, 170-pound left-handed defenceman. As a freshman in Denver, Plant eventually ended up playing with former Habs draft pick Josiah Didier on the top shutdown pair. His head coach Jim Montgomery (yes, the same guy who was traded for Guy Carbonneau) once said the following about him to the Denver Post: “I think the most underrated part of his game is how fiercely competitive he is. He hates to lose any battle.”
Plant was the victim of a vicious hit to the head by University of North Dakota forward Cole Smith earlier this season.
Over the past few weeks the Rocket have begun signing free agents to tryouts in order to assess their capabilities for the upcoming season.
Johnny Austin, Nikita Korostelev, and Bailey Webster are the other three players who have recently joined on amateur tryouts. Meanwhile Matt Petgrave and Anthony Beauregard remain on the team on professional tryouts.
The Rocket play tonight against the mighty Toronto Marlies. The game can be seen on RDS or TSN2, as well as AHL Live. It will be broadast on 91.9 Sports.
