On Thursday, September 9th, the Adirondack Thunder announced the signing of backstop Alex Sakellaropoulos to a standard player agreement for the upcoming season. This will be the netminder’s second stint with the Thunder, as he previously played with the club in 33 games in 2018-19.
“For me, this was a no-brainer,” said Alex Loh, Head Coach of the Thunder. “I think over the last couple of years, we’ve learned that we have to be very comfortable with who we have in net. With Alex, we can trust him. He wasn’t able to join us in 2019 because of the goalies we had with Montreal and New Jersey.
Thunder Finally Have Their Man Between The Pipes
Sakellaropoulos enters the year with a career record of 33-34-6, adding a save percentage of .907 and a goals-against-average of 3.03. The Tinley Park, Illinois native saw a short stint last season with the Wichita Thunder, where he amassed a record of 2-3-1, while adding a save percentage of .934 and a goals-against-average of 2.60. Adirondack is one of nine ECHL teams that Sakellaropoulos has appeared with throughout the duration of his professional career. His only two AHL starts came with the Springfield Thunderbirds in 2018-19, where along with a record of 0-2, he tallied a save percentage of .900 and a goals-against-average of 2.90.
This move gives stability to the goaltending situation, which I will delve deeper into with my season preview that will be released next week. During the 2019-20 season, goaltending was a big question mark with the Thunder, as they leaned very heavily on Eamon McAdam. Eamon played well with the team, but it wasn’t enough to get Adirondack locked into a playoff spot. Evan Cormier had sub-par numbers all season and was frequently moving between Binghamton and Glens Falls. As Alex Loh said in his Facebook Live about being comfortable with his goalies, I think there’s little doubt they will be with the trio.