newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — Two former Alaska Nanooks were among the players changing teams this week amid the free-agent signings and trades in the National Hockey League.

Former left wing Aaron Voros moved from the Twin Cities to the Big Apple home after he signed a three-year, $3 million deal with the New York Rangers, adding to the Alaska atmosphere of the Madison Square Garden tenants.

The former Minnesota Wild skater joins centers and Anchorage natives Scott Gomez and Brandon Dubinsky in the red, white and blue uniforms of the Rangers.

“It’s kind of unique, two guys who are from up there on a team with a guy who went to school (University of Alaska Fairbanks) there,” Voros said Thursday in a telephone interview. “It should be pretty fun.”

Voros and Gomez were teammates while on the New Jersey Devils, who selected Voros in the eighth round of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.

Seven teams were interested in Voros, but the 6-foot-3, 202-pound unrestricted free agent narrowed his choices to the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Rangers.

“Obviously, they’re an Original Six team, as is Toronto, and that was special,” Voros, a Nanook from 2001-04, said. “I weighed the options form both teams, and I saw what role New York wanted me to play, how interested they were in me. I thought it would be the best fit for me. I can work on the power play, play big-man minutes, and I think they have a legitimate chance for a Stanley Cup — always.’’

Voros made his NHL debut last season for the Wild, skating in 55 games after they called him up last November from their American Hockey League affiliate in Houston, Texas. He registered seven goals and seven assists for 14 points and had a team-high 141 penalty minutes. He ranked fifth for the Wild in hits with 96.

Following the regular season, he was nominated for the Bill Masterton Trophy, given annually to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

He also had a goal and 16 penalty minutes in five playoff games with Minnesota.

“He did a lot of good things last season, and a lot of teams took notice in him,” Alaska head coach Dallas Ferguson said by telephone Thursday. “It’s good to see Aaron be with the Rangers.”

Fellow former Nanooks left wing Kyle Greentree, who led Alaska in scoring from 2004-07, moved a little closer to home on Monday after the Philadelphia Flyers traded him to the Calgary Flames for defenseman Tim Ramholt.

Greentree’s relatives in Victoria, British Columbia, should be able to see him play more often with the Flames of Alberta. Calgary is also in the Western Conference’s Northwest Division, which includes the Vancouver Canucks of British Columbia.

Besides seeing more familiar faces in the crowd at Calgary’s Pengrowth Saddledome and Vancouver’s General Motors Place, Greentree could be seeing more playing time with the Flames than he saw with the Flyers.

“Kyle has a legitimate opportunity of playing on our team this season.” Calgary general manager Darryl Sutter said in a release on the Flames’ Web site.

Said Ferguson, “If you look at what Darryl Sutter says, that tells you the type of guy Kyle is. He’s going somewhere where he’s wanted, and that’s a good thing. Kyle’s doing (training) what he needs to this summer and it’s a good organization that’s going to give him a good opportunity.”

Greentree played in two games for the Flyers in 2007-08, and spent most of the season with their AHL club, the Philadelphia Phantoms, generating a team-high 24 goals among his 48 points, third highest for the club.

He also finished ninth among AHL rookies in scoring.

He contributed two goals in eight games for the Phantoms in 2007, not long after signing a two-year, two-way contract with the Flyers following his junior season with the Nanooks.

Former Nanooks defenseman Jordan Hendry (2003-06) re-signed with the Chicago Blackhawks on June 26 for two more seasons with the club which promoted him in January from their AHL affiliate in Rockford, Ill.

“I plan to go to (training) camp in great shape and try to make the team,” Hendry, who is spending part of the summer training in Fairbanks, said on Thursday.

Hendry played in 40 games for the Blackhawks, contributed a goal and three assists.

The 24-year-old native of Nokomis, Saskatchewan, said he won’t be as star-struck in the Blackhawks training camp in September at the United Center in Chicago as he was when he played his first game for them.

“I spent my whole life trying to get to that level and in my first 10 games, I was overwhelmed,” Hendry said. “After being there for 40 games, I felt I deserved to be there, I felt I could play there.

“It’s my job to lose, and I’ve got to train hard this summer. If I go into training camp with a good positive attitude, it should work out fine.”

Contact staff writer Danny Martin at 459-7586.