The Granite City Lumberjacks, proud members of the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL), are pleased to announce that forward Drew Otto has signed an NAHL tender with the Coulee Region Chill. Coulee Region is in the Central Division of the NAHL.
Otto, 19, is currently the leading scorer for the Lumberjacks this season. The native of Menomonie, Wisconsin, has 47 points in 31 games with Granite City this season. His hometown is less than two hours from Coulee Region. Otto (5’11/180) began the season with Port Huron in the NAHL, appearing in two games.
Back in November, Otto was named the NA3HL’s Forward of the Month. In his 31 games played to date, Otto has failed to register a point in just four of them, and includes 13 multi-point games. During November, no player in the NA3HL had more points during the month than Otto. He racked up an NA3HL-high 17 points (7 goals, 10 assists) in just nine games played during the month as the Lumberjacks put together a 6-2-1 record.
“Because of our relationship with the NAHL, Drew was able to skate with a few teams and was presented a great opportunity to sign with the Chill. They are getting a great person and a great player. Drew comes to the rink every day ready to work hard,” said Granite City head coach Brad Willner. “He is consistently is one of the hardest workers we have and his success is a product of some of that. He also has a knack of finding the open man and when his line is playing well, they are hard to keep off the scoreboard.
A tender is a contract, of sorts, a player signs announcing his intentions to play for that particular NAHL team and that NAHL team only. Once a player signs a tender with an NAHL team, his playing rights belong to that team within the NAHL and he may not be recruited by any other NAHL team. Each team is granted ten (10) tenders, which includes one tender exclusively used on players from the NA3HL – plus or minus any trades – which become active on Nov. 1. Tendered players are not eligible for the NAHL draft, which will be held on June 4, 2013.
