Pittsburgh Hornets Alumni Nate Guenin Signs Professional Contract with the Philadelphia Flyers !

Fred Shero, Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Bernie Parent, Rick MacLeish, Ed Van Impe, Tim Kerr, Barry Ashbee, Gary Dornhoefer, Reggie Leach, Keith Allen, Brian Propp, Dave Poulin, Joe Watson, and Ed Snider have all played a major role in the glorious tradition of the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL.

We are proud that former Pittsburgh Hornet R.J.Umberger currently plays a prominent role with the Flyers as well and we are so pleased to learn that former Pittsburgh Hornet Nate Guenin will join such a storied team as today the Philadelphia Flyers announced that they have signed 6’2”, 210-pound free agent defenseman Nate Guenin (GEH-nihn) to a two-year Entry Level contract, according to club Assistant General Manager Paul Holmgren. Per club policy, financial terms were not disclosed.

“Nate is a big, rugged defenseman with a right-handed shot,” said Holmgren in making the announcement. “We look for him to come into our system and hopefully develop into an NHL player. We really like his tenacity and grit. We think that he is a good young prospect and we are excited about having him as part of our organization.”

Guenin, 23, recorded 11 assists and 87 penalty minutes in 39 games for the Ohio State University Buckeyes last season. The senior captain led the team in penalty minutes for the fourth consecutive season and was tied for third on the team in assists. Guenin received honorable mention in the voting for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association’s All-Star Teams following the 2005-06 season.

He was voted “Hardest-Hitting Defenseman” and “Best Defenseman One-on-One” in the CCHA Captains’ poll for the 2005-06 season.In four seasons with Ohio State (2002-03 through 2005-06), Guenin registered six goals and 47 assists for 53 points and 400 penalty minutes in 151 career games. He completed his career in fifth place on the Buckeyes All-Time List in penalty minutes (400).

He was named to the CCHA Second All-Star Team following the 2004-05 season. Guenin served as team captain for the 2005-06 season after being an alternate captain for the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons.A native of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, Guenin was originally drafted from the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League by the New York Rangers in the fourth round (127th overall) of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.

Congratulations Nate on this tremendous achievement and best wishes for a great professional career from the Pittsburgh Hornets!

Patrick Gaul named Captain of USA Team White at Three Nations Hockey Festival !

It has been quite a year for Patrick Gaul of the Pittsburgh Hornets. Patrick recently was named to the USA Hockey NDTP U17 team for the upcoming year, a very great accomplishment indeed. Following up on that success, Patrick then accepted a Division 1 scholarship to play ice hockey for Notre Dame University in the year 2008-2009. These two accomplishments alone are staggering ones for any amateur hockey player in the USA to achieve.

But amazingly Patrick has recently earned another honor that the Pittsburgh Hornets are perhaps most proud of, he was named captain of his USA U17 Hockey Team White currently competing in the Three Nations Hockey Tournament in Rochester, New York this week.

The USA has fielded 2 teams of players to compete against national squads from Germany and Switzerland and as of today both USA teams have been undefeated in the tournament to date. Patrick already has 1 goal and 2 assists in 2 games, exhibiting his well known crafty play against some of the worlds best players in this age group. And based upon his equally well known leadership abilities, he was also selected as captain of his team by his teammates as well ! And we believe that being named as a team captain is one of the greatest honors one can achieve in our sport and fills our organization with a great deal of pride when one of players achieves such a great honor .

The Pittsburgh Hornet Travel Hockey Association prides itself on not only developing some of the best amateur ice hockey players in the country, but in also developing young men of character that can serve in the role someday as a team captain. We try hard to develop young men of character, athletes that work as hard on the ice as they do in the classroom, that are consummate team players, that can lead others by example to greater success, that are selfless and are willing to make personal sacrifices for their teammates and team.

It means having respect, character, ethics, integrity, values and morals and conducting yourself in everything you do consistent with those principles. It means doing what is right because it is the right thing to do. These are the principles which guide our Pittsburgh Hornets AAA Ice Hockey program and that we strive to develop in our players everyday.

Our players have served as team captains at most all levels of hockey, including Division 1 teams like Harvard and Ohio State University. And because we believe that all of our young athletes "were born to succeed, not fail " we anticipate seeing many of our athletes achieving the same or greater successes in the future as well.

We will continue to help our young athletes as best we can to develop into leaders and young men of character. And we congratulate Patrick on this great, great achievement which reflects so well on him as a person, as a teammate and as a born leader, and which makes us so very, very proud to be able to call him a Pittsburgh Hornet.