Here is an article I come across on former Vernon Vipers forwardMike Santorelli who is in his first season with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Santorelli signed with the Maple Leafs as a free-agent after one season in Vancouver. The Leafs signed Santorelli on July 3rd 2014. Santorelli was drafted by the Nashville Predators in Round 6 178th overall at the 2004 NHL Entry Draft played parts of two seasons with the Predators before being traded to the Florida Panthers on August, 5th 2010. Santorelli spent three seasons in Florida (2010-2013) before being claimed off waivers by the Winnipeg Jets on April 3rd 2013. Santorelli finished the season with the Jets before signing as a free agent July 7th 2013 with the Vancouver Canucks. In 49 games with the Canucks this past season Santorelli picked up (10-goals-18-assists-28-points).
Santorelli who was acquired in a off season trade with the Langley Hornets played one season in Vernon (2003-2004). In 60 regular season games with the Vipers Santorelli collected (43-goals-53-assists-96-points).
Mike Santorelli's Player Profile:
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=11417
This was in the Vancouver Province Newspaper:
Santorelli's future more secure than suspect after success in Toronto
Former Canuck can’t wait to play his old team on Saturday
By Ben Kuzma, The Province December 5, 2014
TORONTO — The Canadian dollar is taking a beating, and from a distance it would be easy for the uneducated to conclude the same is happening to Mike Santorelli’s career.
Four teams in four NHL seasons and a 29th birthday on the horizon. Tossed aside by the Canucks in the club’s bid to get younger and bigger — and then tossed a free-agency bone by the Toronto Maple Leafs with a one-year, $1.5-million-US contract — there was no guarantee the Vancouver native would even make the team.
On Thursday, he was playing right wing on the second line with Nazem Kadri and Joffrey Lupul and played a multi-dimensional game that had a common denominator — effort.
There’s simply too much in Santorelli’s game to ignore. Too much try, versatility and resiliency and nine points in a seven-game span — including a deft second-period deflection Thursday for his fourth goal and a short-handed assist in a 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils — to make his future more secure than suspect.
“It’s nice to be back in a Canadian market again, but you have to prove yourself each and every night, and that’s my mindset always,” said the soft-spoken Santorelli. “I just stick with the process and keep getting better and it’s all about every day — it doesn’t matter if you have a one-year or a six-year contract. We weren’t sharp from the start tonight and it wasn’t our ‘A’ game for sure. They got in on the forecheck and got on the body and turned pucks over and got pucks to the net. They worked hard.”
Which is what the Leafs have been doing more often than not of late. And Santorelli has been the straw to stir the drink in combining with Kadri and Lupul for a dozen points in the last two games.
“It’s his work ethic,” said Kadri. “He’s got that tenacity and relentlessness. I enjoy playing with him and we’ve found some chemistry as a line. It’s that sense of desperation in having to play your heart out (with a one-year contract) and either way he’d be doing the exactly the same thing.”
It’s the antithesis of another former Canuck, David Booth. The mercurial winger played just his fourth game on the fourth line Thursday after recovering from a pre-season foot fracture. A compliance buyout because the Canucks weren’t going to cough up the $4.75 million remaining on the final year of his deal, he’s a $1.1-million low-risk signing by the Leafs, but at age 30 appears to be a step closer to becoming a full-time outdoor enthusiast.
Not Santorelli. While you could argue that he couldn’t bump a current Canuck from a roster spot — especially if age and size are determining factors — what he’s given the Leafs is a work ethic that’s often waning as it was in being outworked by the Devils. Somebody even threw a jersey on the ice.
“We were flat and weren’t sharp — that was obvious,” added Kadri, who had the other Leafs goal while Eric Gelinas, Stephen Gionta, Mike Cammalleri, Steve Bernier and Adam Henrique scored for the Devils. “We turned the puck over too many times and fed their offence.”
Toronto was unbeaten in its last five regulation games heading into Thursday, and when you add 10 players on the final year of their contracts, motivation is going to be high.
And it will be for Santorelli on Saturday when the Canucks visit. His season was buried by shoulder surgery last January just when the club wanted to get a stretch-drive read on Santorelli, who had 10 goals and 28 points in 49 games. He was also on a one-year, two-way contract and making just $550,000 at the NHL level. But even a change in management and coaching didn’t change the collective thinking that the club was heading in a different direction. Is Santorelli bitter? Even his uncle, Tony, a security guard outside the Canucks locker-room, isn’t at Rogers Arena anymore.
“Not at all,” stressed Santorelli. “I had such a great time there with such a great group of guys and being born and raised there, it was exciting. I really didn’t hear much about a contract and the injury was obviously frustrating, but that’s hockey. You’ve just got to go with what you’re dealt and all that is over and in the past.”
What’s in the present is Saturday and a long-awaited game against a franchise he idolized. He grew up following Pavel Bure and admired Markus Naslund.
“It’s going to be a special night,” said Santorelli. “They’re doing a great job and really playing well and we’re going to be in for a tough task.”
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