Fuel add pair of blueliners

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indy Fuel, ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks and the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs, announced that they have signed defensemen Kyle Shapiro and Nathan Bruyere to ECHL contracts for the 2016-17 season.

Shapiro joins the Fuel after registering 18 points (8g-10a) in 54 games for the Southern Professional Hockey League’s Columbus Cottonmouths last season. The 26-year-old got his first taste of ECHL hockey in the spring of 2015, when he tallied four assists in an 11-game stint with the Evansville IceMen.

A native of Ambler, Pa., Shapiro is a four-year product of NCAA Div. III Nichols College (Mass.), where he picked up 60 points (18g-42a) in 107 career games for the Bison from 2011-15. Prior to his collegiate career, Shapiro won a Cascade Cup in 2011 as a member of the Northern Pacific Hockey League champion Helena Bighorns.

Bruyere played two seasons with Lakehead University (CIS), where he tallied 21 points (9g-12a) in 41 games from 2013-15. Before joining the Thunderwolves, the Eagle Lake, Ontario native spent three seasons with the OCN Blizzard of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, compiling 81 points (35g-46a) and 157 penalty minutes in 166 total games.