The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed 2012 6th round draft pick Jake Dotchin to an entry level contract, the team announced this morning.
Per the team:
The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed defenseman Jake Dotchin to an entry-level contract today, vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman announced.
Dotchin, 20, skated in 63 games with the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League during the 2013-14 regular season, posting 11 goals and 36 points. He led the Colts for penalty minutes with 121 and was third with a plus-22 rating. He ranked second among defensemen on Barrie for power-play goals with six and first for shorthanded goals with two. The Cambridge, Ontario native has also appeared in 11 playoff games for the Colts, recording three goals and five points.
The 6-foot-3, 209-pound defenseman has played in 193 career OHL games over his three year junior career, collecting 18 goals and 77 points to go along with 279 penalty minutes. Dotchin set career-highs in 2013-14 for goals (11), assists (25) and points (36).
Dotchin was selected by the Lightning in the sixth round, 161st overall, at the 2012 NHL Draft.
Here are his career statistics:
Dotchin also skated in 11 OHL playoff games with the Colts this year, recording 3 goals and 2 assists as the Colts ousted the Sudbury Wolves in the first round before falling to another Tampa Bay Lightning prospect in the 2nd round, defenseman Dylan Blujus and the North Bay Batallion.
His move from the Owen Sound Attack to the Barrie Colts came with a significant increase in his offensive production, up from 0.32 PPG with Owen Sound to 0.48 with Barrie, for an OHL career average of 0.40 PPG, which is solid for a 6th round pick not many expected to provide any offense at all from the blue line.
At 20 years old and with this junior season (and career, likely) over, Dotchin can report directly to the Syracuse Crunch, where he’ll probably need a few years of work in the AHL before getting a chance to crack the NHL lineup. His size, strong two-way and physical play should bolster what was an under-performing defense corps for the Crunch now and in the future.
