Taylor inks deal with Nailers

WHEELING, W.Va. - The Wheeling Nailers are announced the team has signed forward Justin Taylor to a contract for the 2026-27 season.

Taylor, 37, is ready to begin his 17th professional season, and is coming off of a year which saw him set the ECHL record for most career games played. He played in his 885th career contest to take over the top spot on Dec. 13 against the Nailers. He enters this season with 935 ECHL games played, as well as 25 AHL matches for a grand total of 960 professional games. Last season marked the 11th time that Taylor scored 20 or more goals in a season, as he finished the campaign fourth in scoring for the Adirondack Thunder with 39 points (20g-19a) in 68 games. Wheeling will be Taylor's seventh ECHL team, as he has also suited up with Kalamazoo, Trenton, Idaho, Tulsa, Fort Wayne and Adirondack.

The Mindemoya, Ontario native has spent the majority of his playing career with the Kalamazoo Wings, as he played for them during 13 of his first 14 pro seasons, and served as the team's captain in 2021-22. Taylor's most productive seasons came in consecutive years, as he set a career high with 61 points in 2016-17, then set a career high in goals one year later, when he scored 35 times in 2017-18.

Taylor's teams have qualified for the postseason in 11 of his 17 years as a pro. Fifty-six of his 80 career playoff games were played with Kalamazoo, which included a trip to the Kelly Cup Finals in his rookie season of 2010-11. The K-Wings reached the Eastern Conference Finals again the following year, then Taylor reached the Western Conference Final in 2012-13 as a member of the Idaho Steelheads. This past spring, he led Adirondack with four goals and seven points in the North Division Semifinals against Maine, which included scoring the overtime goal in game five to force the series back to Portland.

When Taylor makes his debut with the Nailers, he will become the fourth player in the ECHL's top-six in career games played to have suited up for Wheeling. The other three are Michael Pelech (2nd - 884), Garet Hunt (5th - 776), and Louis Dumont (6th - 771).