Bruton cracks AHL Griffins Opening Day Roster

Former Axemen Captain to play with Detroit’s Top Farm Club

Former Acadia Axemen captain Chris Bruton will be suiting up this season for the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL. The Griffins are the top farm team of the Detroit Red Wings. Bruton attended the team’s training camp on a tryout and has made tonight’s opening day roster.

Bruton, who played last season with the New York Islanders AHL team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, is coming off an injury which limited him to just 41 games; during that time he did manage to rack up 91 penalty minutes and wore the Captaincy for Bridgeport. He skated alongside former Axemen teammate Andrew Clark with the Sound Tigers, while Andrew was called up from the East Coast League.

Chris was also named the team’s winner of the IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year award for his outstanding contributions to the Fairfield County community during the 2013-14 season, which includes participating in all types of community events, including hospital visits, on-ice hockey lessons and trips to local schools to discuss financial responsibility.

Prior to last season the hard nose, pesky forward spent a season and a half with the Peoria Rivermen of the AHL, notching 200 PIM’s in 107 games to go along with 15 points. At the time Peoria was the St. Louis Blues farm club. He had spent the first half of 2011-12 with the ECHL’s Alaska Aces before being recalled to the Rivermen.

Now age 27, the 5-foot-11 200 pound, Bruton, spent three season with Acadia from 2008-2010, playing a total of 69 regular season games and scoring 74 points for the Axemen, splitting the captaincy with Phillippe Bertrand.

Prior to joining the Axemen, the Calgary, Alberta native, was the captain of the 2008 Memorial Cup winning Spokane Chiefs.

To follow Chris’ season, check out griffinshockey.com, Best of luck this year for a great season Brutes!