Caught up with Karl Taylor on the Reign signing defenseman Reggie Traccitto. He was able to add some context to the 20-goal season Traccitto just had with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. Their home rink, Jate Gatecliff Arena, is rather small and certainly helped, but Taylor was sold on Traccitto’s skills.
“He’s a good offensive guy who took advantage of the arena,” Taylor said.
Taylor said that Traccitto has “grown a lot the last few years” since converting from winger to defense, and is looking at him only as a defenseman.
Regarding Greg Hogeboom and Andrew Martens signing in the Central Hockey
League, Taylor said that “(money) is a part of it, but it’s also life
experiences.”
“The Central League is a good league, but it’s different from our league.”
The Reign retained Hogeboom’s ECHL rights, but not Martens’.
As
for Robert Pearce, who recently signed with the Idaho Steelheads,
Taylor said simply that “we wanted to go in a different direction.”
“We feel we can replace what he brought. He’s obviously going to try his best to prove us wrong.”