Uhtred signs 2 year extension with the Bears

[leafsman 207]

Uhtred has had a good offseason this year.  He signed an extension with the Seattle Bears and had a great performance in the World cup for Western Europe.  Uhtred signed a 2 year contract extension with the bears after the expansion draft  thats worth 5 million.  “I was extremely happy to sign the extension with the Bears, I love playing for Seattle.  This deal gives me some long term security I need.  I hope to pay the team back with a great season after the last one was a big disappointment.”  Last year Uhtred scored 16 goals and 17 assist which was much less than his totals in his rookie season and will look to improve those totals this season.  Uhtred had a great perfmance in the World Cup and will look to build upon that when the VHL resumes play.

 

Uhtred played in his first World Cup this offseason after making the Western Europe roster.  Uhtred has had some success on the international stage as he won a gold medal with Europe in the World Juniors.  After such a terrible season last year Uhtred nearly scored half his point total from a season ago in the World Cup.  Uhtred sat atop the world cup round robin leaderboard with Kyl Oferson of the Mercenaries with 15 points.  Uhtred however had one less goal so the round robin scoring leader went to Oferson.  Last season Uhtred scored just 33 points in 72 games so the world cup performance was almost half of his production from the year before.   Although he had a great performance in the round robin the world cup still left a bitter taste for Uhtred as Western Europe was knocked out in round 1 of the playoffs.  “It sucks to have lost in the opening playoff round again after being eliminated with the Bears in round one this past season.  I really wanted to win a gold medal and book my place in the triple gold club.  I am still at the beginning of my career so there's hope that I can join that exclusive club in the next world cup.  I put up great numbers in the round robin but I would trade that for a gold medal in a heartbeat.

 

With the completion of the World Cup, Uhtred is now training hard for the upcoming season.  “One of the weaknesses of my game is my ability to pass the puck and that was the focus of my offseason training plan.  Last season I turned way too many pucks over because I was not able to hit my open teammates with a pass.  I setup a training plan that involved various passing drills and I really think it has improved my passing skills.   I hope that being a better passer will make me a much more effective player this season.  We have a great team here in Seattle and I am looking forward to hitting the ice with the boys at training camp this week.   We had a much longer offseason than we wanted and I think that we will be well rested and ready to make a deep playoff run this season.”  

 

The bears have a tendency to start slow out the gate in recent years and then hit their stride about halfway through the season.  It will be interesting to see if that remains to be the case this season.