The Toledo Walleye signed forward Brett Boeing and defenseman Connor Schmidt to one-year contracts on Friday, and Boeing, who graduated from UMass-Amherst, had good things to say about the Walleye, as noted by the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s John Walfish:
“I had a bunch of opportunities and I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Boeing said. “If I wanted to go to Europe or if I wanted to stay in the States, so I looked at everything and figured out what would be the best for me.
“Toledo is obviously one of the top organizations in the ECHL. Their GM (Neil Neukam) just won back-to-back executive of the year awards and they’ve had a lot of success over the past couple of years.”
What the Walleye saw in Boeing was the same thing that coach Greg Carvel said made Boeing so critical to UMass’ success this season — versatility. In addition to sliding up and down the lineup based on injuries, Boeing was the Minutemen’s best penalty killing forward and a capable substitute on the power play.
He’s an ideal forward for a league like the ECHL where most teams play only three lines in order to develop players for the next levels of the pro system.
“This year you saw me play power play, penalty kill, all situations, so that was one thing they liked that they said,” Boeing said. “Even my agent (Michael Gionta) said just to be so versatile in the pro game … with the constant turnover, they see me as being able to fill in all different roles and work my way up eventually.”
