“We weren’t going to be stopped,” says ECHL veteran

By Sam Laskaris
Windspeaker Contributor
LOVELAND, COLORADO

Casey Pierro-Zabotel will soon be getting himself yet another championship hockey ring.

That’s because for the second straight year, the 28-year-old, a member of British Columbia’s Bonaparte First Nation, was on the winning Kelly Cup championship squad.

The Kelly Cup is annually awarded to the playoff champions of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). The ECHL is considered the second best minor pro hockey league in North America, behind only the American Hockey League.

A year ago Pierro-Zabotel was a member of the Texas-based Allen Americans, who ended up winning the Kelly Cup.

As for this year, he starred for the Colorado Eagles, who play their home contests in the city of Loveland, located about 80 kilometres north of Denver.

PIerro-Zabotel and his Colorado teammates captured this year’s league crown on June 5, thanks to a 2-1 victory over the host South Carolina Stingrays. With that win the Eagles swept their best-of-seven championship final series 4-0.

Colorado won four playoff rounds enroute to its league crown. That included a second-round triumph over the Americans.

“After we beat Allen in the second round we thought we had the momentum on our side,” said Pierro-Zabotel. “We knew what we had to do and we weren’t going to be stopped.”

Pierro-Zabotel led the Eagles in scoring during the regular season with 88 points (24 goals, 64 assists) in 72 games. He added 15 points, including four goals, in 20 playoff outings.

Pierro-Zabotel has now played eight seasons of pro hockey. He had been selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the third round, 80th overall, in the 2007 National Hockey League’s Entry Draft. But he has never played an NHL game.

Besides a half-season stint with a German pro team and a few brief call-ups to various AHL squads, he has spent the majority of his pro career in the ECHL.

“Definitely I would have liked to have played in the NHL,” said Pierro-Zabotel, who spent the final two years of his junior career starring with the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants. “But I’m happy with how my career has gone.”

That’s even though in the ECHL he has to sign one-year contracts.

Despite being one of the Americans’ top performers during their championship year, Pierro-Zabotel was a bit surprised he was not asked to rejoin the Allen club for this past season.

One of the reasons he did not fit into the Americans’ plans was because ECHL clubs can only have a maximum of four players on their rosters who have appeared in 260 or more league games. He has more than 500 ECHL matches under his belt now.

Pierro-Zabotel had a number of other options, including joining the Eagles.

“I knew this is where I wanted to play,” he said of the Colorado franchise. “The fans are really great. They are really loud for the whole game.”

As for next season, Pierro-Zabotel has yet to sign a deal. But he’s not worried about that. A year ago it was at the end of July that he inked his contract with the Eagles.

Since he’s still putting up big numbers he’s confident there will be interest in his services. And he knows what his top choice would be.

“I would definitely like to come back to Colorado,” said Pierro-Zabotel, who spends his off-seasons in Kamloops, B.C. “I’m getting a little bit older now. I like the stability of not having to move my family around that much.”

Pierro-Zabotel and his wife Levi have two children, a seven-year-old son and a daughter who is turning one.

Though he plans to be off the ice for a few weeks, Pierro-Zabotel is expected to soon begin his off-season training in Kamloops.

“There’s a lot of guys who play pro there,” he said.

His off-season training has been in Kamloops for almost 15 years now, even dating back to his junior days. In recent years those he has worked out with include two NHL regulars, Arizona Coyotes’ captain Shane Doan (who is contemplating retirement) and Boston Bruins’ forward Riley Nash.

Though he has pretty much abandoned his hopes of making it to the NHL, Pierro-Zabotel would love to continue playing pro hockey for a number of years. Besides, he feels he is still improving.

“I think every year I can get better and better,” he said. “And that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Pierro-Zabotel also likes the feeling of winning championships.

“I just want to keep winning more now,” he said.