After a prolific 20-year-old season, Alberni Valley forward David Dziurzynski is now property of the Ottawa Senators after the National Hockey League club signed the British Columbia Hockey League prospect to a three-year contract on Tuesday.
?It?s the best fit for me to develop,? Dziurzynski says. ?They have a great program and their focus on development was one of the main attractions.?
In his first and only season with the Bulldogs, Dziurzynski scored 21 goals and contributed 74 points to the team?s first-place season in the Coastal Conference ? during which he recorded 26 multi-point games. The Lloydminster, Alberta native carried his offensive touch into the 2010 BCHL playoffs with a team-high nine goals and 10 assists in 13 games during Alberni Valley?s run to the Coastal Conference Finals.
After two seasons in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, where he played for his hometown Lloydminster Bobcats and tallied 20 goals and 37 assists in 106 games, Dziurzynski joined the Bulldogs via trade last July in what turned out to be a great move for his hockey career.
?It was a great experience,? he says. ?The league is unbelievable. It changed my life. I had a couple good linemates that I played with ? it was the best line in the BCHL.?
The threesome of Dziurzynski and Mitch and Mark MacMillan combined for 247 points during the regular season to lead the offensive charge around the league.
?When we start talking about David, Mark and Mitch were great for him,? says Bulldogs head coach and GM Nolan Graham. ?David?s a big guy and he?s strong on the puck, but I think what he brings is a great hockey sense and we all saw that in the playoffs.?
In particular, Graham remembers a play during Alberni Valley?s series versus Nanaimo that put Dziurzynski?s hockey smarts on display.
?In Game 5 against Nanaimo, he assisted on a big-time goal and I don?t know if anyone in the building saw Mark MacMillan open on the backdoor,? he marvels about the 6?3?, 205-pound prodigy. ?He really made that line click and was huge for us offensively.?
Despite it being a special day for Alberni Valley?s franchise, Graham points to the move as a sign of growth within BCHL as a developmental league for any level of hockey.
?As much as it?s great for David, it?s great for our level of hockey and the BCHL,? says Graham. ?It?s continuing to prove that we?re making strides. We?re on the map as far as being a league that can develop players ? not only for college hockey but also for professional hockey. Fans and players attending our games now are seeing more and more NHL scouts and management at the rink.?
Dziurzynski will attend Senators? training camp next fall and try to make the big club, but he says suiting up for the team's American Hockey League affiliate in Binghamton is a more realistic goal for the 2010/11 season.
