Championship winning goaltender joins the Blaze for 2010/11 season
Coventry Blaze Head Coach, Paul Thompson has today confirmed that he has completed the signing of Canadian netminder, Brett Jaeger from the Texas Brahmas of North America's Central Hockey League (CHL).
The twenty seven year old native of Peace River, Alberta joins the Blaze on the back of a six year, standout out professional career that started with three years in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL), followed by three seasons with Texas in the CHL.
After a stand out junior career including league MVP honours in 2003/04, Jaeger turned professional at the start of the 2004/05 season and in three seasons started in 98 games in the ECHL for Augusta, Fresno and Long Beach. He recorded an ECHL career save percentage of 91.3% and a goals against average of just 2.83 per game and his high quality performances led to his selection for the 2005/06 ECHL All Star Game.
After joining the Brahmas for the 2007/08 season, Jaeger made 104 regular season starts for the Texas club, posting a highly impressive save percentage of 91.9% and goals against average of 2.52 per game over three seasons. In play off action, his stats improved further to a 92.6% save percentage and 2.45 goals against average in 32 post season games. During his time with the Brahmas he collected a string of league goalie of the week and month honours.
The highlight of Jaeger's professional career came in the 2008/09 season when his outstanding netminding led the Brahmas to the CHL title - Jaeger posting career best figures of 2.2 goals against and a 93% save percentage in 16 play off games.
"I'm very excited about the opportunity to play hockey overseas and with the chance for that to be representing the Coventry Blaze in the United Kingdom," said Jaeger. "I've heard nothing but great things about both the team and the organisation.
"This will be my first experience in the UK and I'm looking forward to helping the Blaze continue with its strong hockey tradition in the Elite League. I'm thrilled that I'm going to be playing in front of the enthusiastic and great fans the team has in Coventry and I'm expecting nothing less than our team having great success."
Thompson declared himself equally pleased that Jaeger will be joining up with the Blaze.
"We've been very fortunate in Coventry to have had three outstanding championship winning goalies in Lehman, Koenig and Hirsch and I really believe that Brett has all the skills and ability to join that Elite group.
"Whether he's been playing junior, in the East Coast League or with Texas in the CHL, his stats have been outstanding and he's been a key player for every team he's played for. He's an athletic goalie and handles the puck exceptionally well but most importantly, he knows how to win.
"It takes a special kind of goalie to handle the pressure of looking to win every night and chasing championships so having signed a goalie who not only handles it, but thrives on it, is great news for our organisation."