Stars Announce Signings of Hedden, Schultz

Stephen Schultz (Credit: Texas Stars)
The Texas Stars announced two more signings today for the 2011-12 season, Stephen Schultz and Mike Hedden, both on standard player contracts.

Stephen Schultz, who joined the team on an ATO at the end of last season, was actually signed before the end of last season for this coming year. This is the first initial announcement of that signing which I first reported on here. Schultz is out of Colorado College, the same school that produced Richard Bachman and former Star Scott McCulloch. Expect him to make the roster as I outlined in my season preview at the forward position.

Mike Hedden with the Grand Rapids Griffins (Credit: Mark Newman)
Texas also signed Mike Hedden to an SPC. The third year pro has spent time in the AHL in six games with Rochester, Rockford and Grand Rapids. His stats are here on hockeydb.com. Hedden's signing will likely make it near impossible for a tryout player to make the team out of camp. The forward position now has 15 committed skaters for the coming season. Cracking that lineup is going to require a lot of effort on the part of a PTO. It's not impossible, but it's close.

Here's the full release:

The Texas Stars announced on Tuesday the team has signed forwards Stephen Schultz and Mike Hedden for the 2011-12 American Hockey League season (SPC – Standard Player Contract).

Schultz joined Texas in late March after concluding a four-year career at Colorado College from 2007-11. The 23-year old rookie played in five regular season games without registering a point for the Stars. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound forward posted WCHA highs as a senior in 2010-11, scoring 17 goals and totaling 45 points in 43 games played. In his final two years as a Tiger, Schultz set up 43 goals and totaled 65 points in 71 games. For his collegiate career, Schultz scored 36 goals and totaled 86 points in 127 contests. The rookie played with current Texas Stars goalie Richard Bachman at Colorado College.

Hedden enters his third professional season after spending parts of the previous two years in the ECHL and AHL. In all, the 26-year old has played in six AHL games, split up between Rochester, Rockford and Grand Rapids in 2010-11. Hedden recorded a goal and two assists for three AHL points. The Dunnville, ON native also played in 57 games last year for the Toldeo Walleye of the ECHL. Despite playing in only 57 games, Hedden led Toledo with 32 goals and was third overall in points with 52. The 6-foot, 185-pound left wing spent his first season pro with Toledo in 2009-10. In his first season with the Walleye, Hedden scored 18 times and totaled 32 points in 66 games played. Prior to turning pro, the undrafted forward played four years at Neumann College, scoring 96 goals and picking up 163 points over 108 games from 2005-09.