Sophomore forward Andreas Nodl, of Vienna, Austria, is the latest WCHA player to sign a pro contract.

Nodl signed with the Philadelphia Flyers who annunced the news on Friday. He was fourth in the conference in scoring with 18 goals and 26 assists for 44 points.

Three other top WCHA players signed earlier this week:

* junior defenseman Jason Garrison, Minnesota Duluth, with the Florida Panthers… he had five goals and nine assists

* freshman forward Kyle Turris, Wisconsin, with the Phoenix Coyotes … he led all WCHA rookies in scoring with 11 goals and 24 assists for 35 points.

* junior forward Jon Kalinski, Minnesota State Mankato, with Philadelphia … he had eight goals and 10 assists. He was impressive against the Gophers in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, especially killing penalties

No word yet on Blake Wheeler, the Gophers’ junior forward. Phoenix has his draft rights, too. Coach Don Lucia expects he will sign. Blake’s father Jim said on Thursday his son is just taking a hard look at his options for the first time this week.

“He’s still a Gopher,” Jim Wheeler said.

Wonder if the Coyotes’ signing of Turris might mean Phoenix is less anxious that Wheeler turn pro this offseason?Â

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.