St. Pierre Returns 10/09/12

 It's been six years since the IceHogs joined the American Hockey League.  The sparkplug of that team was Martin St. Pierre.  This season he's back with the Hogs hoping to play that same role.

In 2007-08 St. Pierrre had 88 points to lead the IceHogs and rank second in the entire AHL. That mark still stands as an IceHogs record.

"He brings a tremendous amount of skill and vision to the ice," says IceHogs Coach Ted Dent.  "Hopefully he can help improve our power play is one thing that he can bring to the table."

Since that first season with the Hogs St. Pierre has been around.  He's played with three other AHL teams. He's had brief stints in the NHL with the Bruins, and Senators.  He's also played in Russia and Austria.  He's happy to be back in Rockford.

"Obviously it's a great organization to bcome back to, and I had a good successful year here in '07-08, so it was a no-brainer coming back, especially with the lockout," says St. Pierre.

St. Pierre's role here will be the same as it was before...be a playmaker and set guys up for goals.

"I want to be the go-to guy at game time if we're down one goal or up one goal..take that defensive zone draw, but I'm still the quarterback on the power play," says St. Pierre. "I still want to be sccussfulon the power play. "

If St. Pierre's skills have begun to erode, that hasn't shown up on his stats.  Last season in the AHL with Springfield he led the team with 64 points in 73 games.

"I've been fortunate enough with different organizations from Boston to Ottawa..whether it's in Europe two years ago or Springfield last year I played with a lot of good players," says St. Pierre. "There's some good scoring here with the Pirris', Moren's, Hayes, Saad.  I'm definitely looking forward to it."

 It's seems the only thing different about St. Pierre this time around is his long hair.

"I'm just going through a phase I think," joked St. Pierre.  "I had long hair when I played junior and told myself before I get 30 years old, I've got one more year, so I try to grow the hair out before I mature a little bit."