Joly heads to Wheeling

WHEELING, W.Va - The Wheeling Nailers, ECHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins, announced that the team has signed forward Michael Joly to a contract for the 2020-21 season.Joly, 25, is set to begin his fifth professional season, as he returns to the ECHL, where he has had outstanding success. He spent two seasons in the ECHL with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits and Colorado Eagles from 2016-18, and proceeded to pile up 107 points (64g-43a) in 81 regular-season games. That production continued in the 2018 playoffs, as he led the ECHL with 13 goals and 29 points and earned the June M. Kelly Playoffs Most Valuable Player Award, as the Eagles captured the Kelly Cup.The Gatineau, Québec native has spent the last two seasons playing for Colorado in the American Hockey League. Joly's best AHL campaign came in 2018-19, when he finished fifth on the club with 30 points in 47 games. He has posted 68 points (34g-34a) in 136 career AHL games with Colorado and Hartford.

Prior to turning pro, Joly played four seasons of junior hockey with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Rimouski Océanic and Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. The highlight of his junior career came in 2015, when his goal in double overtime of game seven won the President's Cup for the Océanic.