Defenseman Mike Little is set to complete a rather unusual three-in-three.
After signing the 27-year-old blueliner just prior to Tuesday’s game and then releasing him so that he could rejoin a depleted Florida Everblades team for its game on Wednesday, the Checkers have re-signed him to another professional tryout contract so that he can play the second of their two-game set against the Oklahoma City Barons on Thursday. The signing would seem to suggest that Keegan Lowe, day-to-day with an injury that has kept him out of the last three games, is at least questionable to return.
According to details shared by the News-Press in Florida, Little picked up an assist in the Everblades’ 5-4 win despite arriving just 45 minutes prior to warm-ups. He had reportedly arrived 15 minutes prior to warmups in Charlotte the night before.
"I didn't get a pre-game meal, I had a bagel," Little told the News-Press following Wednesday’s game. "I'm tired."
Scoreless in his brief AHL experience with Norfolk and Charlotte, Little, a native of Enfield, CT, has 117 points (24g, 93a) 208 career ECHL games over five seasons with Reading, Stockton and Florida.
This season, Little, who checks in at 5-foot-9 and 185 pounds, is tied for second on the Everblades in scoring with 18 points (2g, 16a) in 20 games to go along with a plus-18 rating. The product of American International College is tied for fourth among ECHL defensemen in points and is tied for sixth among all players in plus-minus.
The Checkers are once again up to four PTOs on their roster – Little, his Florida Everblades teammate Gabriel Desjardins, A.J. Jenks and Andrew Rowe. Rowe will be able to sympathize with Little, having arrived from ECHL South Carolina to play his fourth game in four days on Nov. 2.
