Icemen agree to terms with Vernon

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Icemen, ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Buffalo Sabres and the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans, announced that the team has agreed to terms with goaltender Matt Vernon for the 2023-24 season.

Vernon, 25, joins the Icemen after beginning his professional career this past spring with the Reading Royals. He went 0-1-1 with a 2.40 goals-against average and a 0.904 save percentage in his two outings with the Royals.

Prior to Reading, Vernon played at Colorado College where he totaled 19 wins, with five shutouts, a 3.02 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage. The Calgary, Alberta resident also played two seasons with the North American Hockey League’s Aberdeen Wings where he compiled 57 wins, including a 40-win season with seven shutouts during the 2018-19 year.

Vernon is the son of longtime NHL goaltender Mike Vernon who won a Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames in 1989 and with the Detroit Red Wings in 1997, while also being named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the Most Valuable Player of the 1997 Stanley Cup Playoffs.