Geoff Walker (ice hockey)

Geoff Walker (born December 9, 1987) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right wing who most notably played in the American Hockey League (AHL).

Geoff Walker
With the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins during the 2012 Calder Cup Playoffs
Born (1987-12-09) December 9, 1987
Charlottetown, PEI, Canada
Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Weight 225 lb (102 kg; 16 st 1 lb)
Position Right wing
Shot Right
Played for Manchester Monarchs
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Lake Erie Monsters
Syracuse Crunch
HC Fassa
Sheffield Steelers
Guildford Flames
NHL Draft Undrafted
Playing career 2008–2018

Playing career

Walker spent the 2003–04 season with the Summerside Western Capitals of the Junior A Maritime Junior Hockey League.[1] While with the Capitals, Walker competed in the 2004 World U-17 Hockey Challenge for Team Atlantic.[2][3]

Walker played major junior hockey in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for the Gatineau Olympiques and his hometown club, the Prince Edward Island Rocket.[4]

After completing the 2007–08 season, his final in major junior, Walker signed an amateur try-out agreement with the Texas Brahmas of the Central Hockey League for the remainder of the 2007–08 season.[5]

On September 30, 2008, Walker signed with the Phoenix RoadRunners of the ECHL, but was soon after waived by the team and claimed off of waivers by the Ontario Reign on October 14, 2008.[6][4]

During the 2009–10 season, Walker split his time between the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League (AHL) and their ECHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.[7]

After two seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins affiliate, the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Walker was signed to his first NHL contract on a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche on July 1, 2012.[8] Before playing a game for the Avalanche, Walker was assigned to the teams's AHL affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters.[9] During the 2012–13 season, Walker dealt with injury, appearing in only 51 games for the Monsters, in which he accrued 5 goals, 15 assists, and 55 penalty minutes.[9][10]

On July 5, 2013, Walker signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Lightning on a one-year, two-way contract.[10] On September 21, 2013, the Lightning assigned Walker to its AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.[11] On March 31, 2014, the Lightning reassigned Walker to the Florida Everblades, its ECHL affiliate.[12]

On August 9, 2014, Walker agreed to a try-out contract with the Iserlohn Roosters of the German Deutsche Eishockey Liga.[13] On August 25, 2014, the Roosters announced that they had released Walker from his try-out contract.[14]

On September 23, 2014, Walker re-signed with ECHL's Ontario Reign for the 2014–15 season.[4] On January 22, 2015, Walker was traded by the Reign to the Missouri Mavericks in exchange for David Rutherford.[15] After completing the season with the Mavericks, Walker signed his first contract abroad, agreeing to a one-year deal with DEL2 club, Löwen Frankfurt on June 15, 2015.[16] However, on August 1, 2015, Walker opted to terminate his contract with Frankfurt citing family reasons.[17] On August 21, 2015, Walker continued his professional career in America signing a one-year AHL contract with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.[18]

On April 19, 2016, Walker signed a contract with Tingsryds AIF of the Swedish HockeyAllsvenskan.[19] In the lead up to the pre-season, Walker sought and was released from his agreement with Tingsryds opting to move initially to Italian club, HC Fassa of the newly formed Alps Hockey League to begin the 2016–17 season.

Walker played 33 games with Fassa in accruing 56 points before leaving the club to in February 2017 to join UK team Sheffield Steelers of the Elite Ice Hockey League.[20] After helping the Steelers win the Elite League playoff final, Walker departed the club at the end of the season.[21]

Walker returned to North America agreeing to a one-year ECHL contract with the Indy Fuel on August 17, 2017.[22] During the 2017–18 season, in November 2017, Walker moved back to the EIHL to sign for Guildford Flames to complete his ten-year professional career.

Coaching career

On June 22, 2018, returned to junior hockey by accepting the inaugural general manager/head coach role with the Hinton Wildcats of the Western States Hockey League (WSHL).[23] After one season in Hinton, he was hired by the Canton Cubs of the North American 3 Hockey League for the same positions on April 23, 2019.[24] On April 25, he instead took the head coach position of the Bellingham Blazers in the WSHL.[25] By June 16, 2019, he joined the Red Lake Miners of the Superior International Junior Hockey League.[26]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs
Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2003–04 Summerside Western Capitals MJAHL 44 19 26 45 6 — — — — —
2004–05 Gatineau Olympiques QMJHL 45 11 6 17 27 — — — — —
2005–06 Gatineau Olympiques QMJHL 15 0 2 2 18 — — — — —
2005–06 Prince Edward Island Rocket QMJHL 34 15 11 26 49 6 2 1 3 6
2006–07 Prince Edward Island Rocket QMJHL 65 30 50 80 105 7 4 5 9 6
2007–08 Prince Edward Island Rocket QMJHL 69 38 52 90 52 4 4 3 7 4
2007–08 Texas Brahmas CHL — — — — — 5 0 0 0 9
2008–09 Ontario Reign ECHL 68 21 27 48 39 7 3 5 8 0
2009–10 Manchester Monarchs AHL 37 5 9 14 55 — — — — —
2009–10 Ontario Reign ECHL 26 7 16 23 20 — — — — —
2010–11 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins AHL 70 11 19 30 102 12 1 3 4 8
2011–12 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins AHL 68 18 26 44 114 12 1 4 5 4
2012–13 Lake Erie Monsters AHL 51 5 15 20 55 — — — — —
2013–14 Syracuse Crunch AHL 43 6 2 8 56 — — — — —
2013–14 Florida Everblades ECHL 6 6 3 9 2 — — — — —
2014–15 Ontario Reign ECHL 35 12 14 26 31 — — — — —
2014–15 Missouri Mavericks ECHL 25 6 11 17 20 — — — — —
2015–16 Reading Royals ECHL 5 1 5 6 0 — — — — —
2016–17 HC Fassa AlpsHL 33 21 35 56 24 — — — — —
2016–17 Sheffield Steelers EIHL 15 4 7 11 7 4 3 2 5 0
2017–18 Indy Fuel ECHL 6 2 4 6 4 — — — — —
2017–18 Guildford Flames EIHL 35 15 19 34 32 2 0 3 3 0
AHL totals 269 45 71 116 382 24 2 7 9 12

International
Year Team Event Result GP G A Pts PIM
2004 Canada Atlantic WHC-17 6th 5 1 5 6 16
Junior totals 5 1 5 6 16

References
  1. "W-B/Scranton Bios - Bridgeport Sound Tigers" (PDF). Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 24, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  2. "Atlantic". Hockey Canada. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  3. "Schedule, Results & Rosters". Hockey Canada. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  4. "Geoff Walker Returns to Ontario". OurSportsCentral.com. September 23, 2014. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  5. Reid, Charles (April 2, 2008). "Walker Heads for Texas". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 26, 2015. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  6. "Hockey Transactions". The Hockey News. September 30, 2008. Archived from the original on 2015-10-06. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  7. "Geoff Walker (RW)". AHL. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  8. Malloy, Jason (July 10, 2012). "Walker Joins Avalanche". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  9. MacDonald, Fred (February 23, 2013). "Fiddler's Facts: MacIntyre, Walker Deserve a Break in The Pro Ranks". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 26, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  10. "Lightning sign forward Geoff Walker". Tampa Bay Lightning. July 5, 2013. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  11. "Lightning Assign Four to Syracuse Crunch". OurSportsCentral.com. September 21, 2013. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  12. "Right Wing Joel Vermin Joins Crunch, Geoff Walker Assigned to Florida". OurSportsCentral.com. March 31, 2014. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  13. "Geoff Walker unterzeichnet Tryout-Vertrag" (in German). Iserlohn Roosters. August 9, 2014. Archived from the original on February 11, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  14. "Try-Out mit Geoff Walker beendet" (in German). Iserlohn Roosters. August 25, 2014. Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  15. "Mavericks Acquire Right Wing Geoff Walker from Reign". OurSportsCentral.com. January 22, 2015. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  16. "Great and powerful forward to Frankfurt" (in German). Löwen Frankfurt. 2015-06-15. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
  17. "Geoff Walker is not coming, new plans underway" (in German). Löwen Frankfurt. 2015-08-01. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
  18. "Logan Pyett and Geoff Walker signed to AHL contracts". Lehigh Valley Phantoms. 2015-08-21. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  19. "Geoff Walker klar för Tingsryds AIF" (in Swedish). Tingsryds AIF. April 19, 2016. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  20. "Walker added to Steelers roster". Elite Ice Hockey League. 2017-02-05. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  21. "Steelers confirm Walker and Franzon exit". Elite Ice Hockey League. 2017-04-05. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
  22. "Fuel land high scoring veteran forward Geoff Walker". Indy Fuel. 2017-08-17. Archived from the original on 2017-09-12. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
  23. "Wildcats are pleased to announce hiring of GM/Coach". hintonwildcats.ca. 2018-06-22. Archived from the original on 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  24. "Canton names Geoff Walker as Head Coach and GM". NA3HL. April 23, 2019.
  25. "Geoff Walker dubbed Head Coach!". Bellingham Blazers. April 25, 2019.
  26. "MINERS HIRE NEW HEAD COACH/GM". Red Lake Miners. 16 June 2019.
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