Drayson Bowman, once one of the Checkers’ top offensive threats, is now getting an opportunity to reprise that role.
The Checkers announced Friday that they have signed Bowman, who scored 78 points (39g, 39a) in 130 games for Charlotte between 2010-13, to a professional tryout contract. The Carolina Hurricanes’ third-round draft choice in 2007, Bowman, now 26, had begun the season with the ECHL’s Colorado Eagles, where he posted three assists in three games. It was not immediately clear as to whether he will be available for tonight’s game in his birthplace of Grand Rapids.
Not that the Checkers are hurting for goals (they are currently tied for second in the AHL with an average of 4.8 per game), but Bowman could conceivably help in that category, particularly with Brock McGinn in the NHL and Justin Shugg recently missing time with an upper-body injury. When last playing for the Checkers during the 2012-13 season, Bowman set a still-intact franchise record by finding the back of the net in eight consecutive games.
After leaving the organization as a free agent in the summer of 2014, Bowman earned a two-way NHL contract with Montreal after attending the Canadiens’ camp on a tryout basis. He went on to score 33 points (14g, 19a) in 62 AHL games with the Hamilton Bulldogs, playing alongside Checkers forward T.J. Hensick, while also going scoreless in three games with Montreal.
In beginning the season with the ECHL’s Eagles near his hometown of Littleton, Coloardo, Bowman played on the same team as his brother Collin, a defenseman who made the league’s All-Star Team last season. In junior hockey, Drayson Bowman scored 242 points (130g, 112a) in 265 games with Spokane of the WHL, playing under current Hurricanes coach Bill Peters and alongside current Checkers center Derek Ryan for part of that time.
This actually the second time that Bowman, who scored 33 points (15g, 18a) in 179 games for Carolina from 2009-14, has signed a PTO with the Checkers. The Hurricanes used that as a tactic to avoid the risk of losing him on waivers during the lockout, with Bowman spending the remainder of that season in the NHL following its work stoppage.
Bowman’s next game for the Checkers would be his first since Jan. 11, 2013. Along with Zach Boychuk and Rasmus Rissanen, he is one of three players on the current roster that also played for the club during its inaugural AHL season in 2010-11.
