May 6th, 2005- The ‘Bulldogs’ announced the signing of Brad Avi. The news was first announced by Jason Darfler, and later confirmed by GM Alex Martinez.

Martinez made the announcement at Thursday afternoon’s press conference from a prepared statement. “The player we picked up and signed, Brad Avi has been out of hockey for almost a whole year. He last played with the Tijuana ‘Totos’ where he was teammates with James Senne and Darfler for a brief period. He is excited to be on board and stated that he’ll do his best to make it out to pre-season practices to mesh with the team.”.

Not much is known about Avi other than a few facts and some rumors. He has been playing hockey for the last 10 yrs, graduating from floor to inline to ice four years ago.  At age 22, he is currently a fire fighter in Hanover Park, a town that sees about one fire every four years.

A report from Mexico details that Avi was released by the ‘Totos’ for accepting a bribe to fix a playoff game. However, after accepting the bribe, he went out and scored four goals in the game including the game winner. Martinez dismissed the report as “…lies and garbajo. We checked into the report and found nothing.”

The signing fills the roster spot for next season, vacated by Arnie Becker. Becker, who had a fairly decent season was given his outright release by the ‘Bulldogs’ not for his play, but for other reasons. “He was a clubhouse cancer” said Martinez. “He failed to show up to practice and several games. He was more interested in being a glory hound, rather than playing for the betterment of the team. We have no room for an attitude like that.”

The ‘Bulldogs’ announced that ‘Rehab’ Ross Lesmurier would not be returning because of obligations to his other team, the ‘Molly Malones’. “Ross was a good player and teacher for some of our young guys” said Martinez. “His presence will be sorely missed and we hope that he will return this fall.”

In other news: the ‘Bulldogs’ welcomed back Tony Micheles for the upcoming campaign. Tony, as many ‘Bulldog’ fans know, played outstanding defense on one half of the TNT line  for two seasons. He left the team last season to address personal issues with his drug and alcohol problem. While attending rehab, he also starred in the Mexican League until he recovered from his addiction. Micheles’ role with the team will be limited this season as a reserve player until he gets back into hockey shape and attends his mandatory A.A. meetings.

The ‘Bulldogs’ will be required to fill one or two more roster spots since Kurt Swanson has also been placed on the reserve squad. Swanson’s lower back injury from last season has been bothering him in recent weeks, so he will take it slowly until he fully recovers. John Reeg was still in negotiations for a contract to return as a player, but as of 9:30pm (05/05/05) he was signed to a one season deal.

Martinez released the roster for the upcoming season. “Although this is the roster in place today, we may be making a couple of changes before the season begins. Several players are nursing injuries and we hope to have them ready by opening day. We have also been in contact with several free agents and other team GM’s to make a couple trades. No one on our squad is untouchable and we will make the best deals that are in the best interest of the team.

Prospective Roster for 2005 Season:

• Brad Avi
• Brad Cornis RW
• Jason Darfler D
• Anthony Feeney D
• Maher Karim LW
• Sal Karim LW/RW
• Sam Karim D
• Frank Lionello C/RW
• Mike Mancuso RW/C
• Alex Martinez G
• Bill Nolan RW
• James Senne D/G
• Joey Van Grimbergen C
• John Reeg D/LW/RW 

Reserve:

• Ryne Gerstner D/LW/RW
• Kurt Swanson LW
• Tony Micheles D