SteelHounds re-sign Odut for next season

YOUNGSTOWN — Forward Mark Odut has signed to return to the Youngstown SteelHounds for the 2007-08 season.

Odut, 27, joined the team last Dec. 8 after playing for the East Coast Hockey League’s Long Beach Ice Dogs.

In 45 games for the SteelHounds of the Central Hockey League, he amassed six goals and 16 assists.

The forward from Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada, is no stranger to SteelHounds Head Coach Kevin Kaminski, playing for him with the Missouri River Otters of the United Hockey League.

While playing under Kaminski with Missouri, Odut notched 41 points on 24 goals and 17 assists during the 2004-2005 season. 

Kaminski considers the 5-11, 175-pound left winger as a trusted contributor to this team.

“He has a great mind for every aspect of this game,” Kaminski said. “He can score, but he also has a lot of pride for his play in the defensive zone and Mark is a very smart penalty killer.”

Odut joins forwards Mark Johnson and Chris Shaffer as well as defensemen Jeff Alcombrack and Stephen Margeson as returning players from the squad which qualified for the CHL playoffs for the first time.

Still unsigned are forward Chris Richards, one of the SteelHounds’ two league MVP candidates, and the four players the SteelHounds received from Tulsa when captain and league MVP Jeff Christian was traded in June.