Archive photo courtesy Los Angeles Kings / NHL: Jared Aulin scores one of two goals in the LA Kings’ 8-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes Feb. 27, 2003 at Staples Centre.

CALGARY – Calgary native and former NHLer Jared Aulin headlines Dinos coach Scott Atkinson’s recruiting class for the 2007-08 season.

Jared Aulin's hockeydb page

Aulin is a first-line centre who can score – he had 108 points in the 2000-01 WHL season with Kamloops – and brings big-league experience to Canada West.

“You do good things, and good things happen to you,” said Atkinson, who enters his seventh season as head coach of the Dinos men’s hockey program. “He has the complete skill package. He can skate, shoot, handle the puck, and he’s great passer.

“The thing he’s making the biggest impact in is that he’s confident in his abilities and he has a phenomenal work ethic, which makes him an example to some of our younger players.”

Aulin enrolled at the University of Calgary this fall after spending five seasons in professional hockey. His pro career took him to four different American Hockey League cities and three NHL franchises.

Aulin is the first hockey player to begin CIS play after playing in the NHL since Eric Calder, who played for the Washington Capitals from 1981-83 before joining the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks from 1985-88. Aulin is just the 12th player overall to come back to play in CIS after playing in the National Hockey League.

He was involved in an on-ice altercation in a local summer league this past July, where an opponent swung his stick like a baseball bat and struck Aulin in the neck. He fell to the ice unconscious, suffering a concussion and a swollen carotid artery.

Aulin, who was leading the league in scoring at the time with 17 goals and 31 points, contemplated leaving the game for good following the incident, but enjoys the fit with the Dinos, a team which includes several former Kamloops Blazers teammates – including Ryan Annesley, a line-mate in Kamloops he will be reunited with in Calgary. He plans to enter the Haskayne School of Business.

“I felt this was a great opportunity to get an education and play the game I love with a strong and competitive group of guys,” Aulin said.

After his outstanding career in the WHL, Aulin was drafted in the second round, 47th overall by the Colorado Avalanche in 2000. He played for Team Canada at the 2002 World Junior Hockey Championship, winning a silver medal. Aulin was tied for third in scoring at the tournament with nine points in seven games.

He was traded to the Los Angeles organization in 2001 as part of the Rob Blake deal and played 17 NHL games with the Kings in the 2002-03 season. He recorded two goals and two assists in the NHL, with both goals and one assist coming in L.A.’s 8-2 drubbing of the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 7, 2003 at Staples Center. He was named the second star of that game.

Late in the 2003-04 season Aulin was traded to the Washington Capitals for Anson Carter and spent the following three seasons with Portland, Hershey, and Springfield of the AHL. He was released by Springfield in November 2006, days after aggravating a shoulder injury that ended his season.

Aulin has one year of CIS eligibility remaining. Professional games played before Dec. 31 of the year in which an athlete turns 21 are not charged against the athlete’s CIS men’s hockey eligibility, so the games he played in the 2002-03 season are not counted. He will be eligible as of Nov. 12, one year following his final AHL game.

Aulin will join an impressive list of WHL recruits that will suit up for the Dinos in 2007-08.

Left-inger Teegan Moore, a five-year veteran of the WHL, also joins the team. Moore spent most of his five-year career with the Brandon Wheat Kings before being traded to Portland midway through last season. His best offensive season came in 2005-06 when he scored 43 points in 68 games for the Wheat Kings. The Thompson, Man. native stands 5’11”, 200 lbs. and enters UC’s Open Studies program.

Another key recruit is Reid Jorgensen, a Kamloops Blazers product. Jorgensen will join the Dinos pending a tryout at the Boston Bruins NHL camp. The 5’11”, 195-pound forward scored 99 goals in 297 career games with the Blazers, with his best point total coming last season with 68 points in 61 games. Jorgensen was named a second team WHL all-star in 2006-07.

Joining returnees Scott Talbot and Jordan McLaughlin between the pipes is Jeff Weber, a three-year veteran of the East Coast Hockey League who will enter his third season of eligibility. Like Aulin, he becomes eligible Nov. 12 – one year after his last pro appearance.

Weber was drafted in the eighth round, 235PthP overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft after an OHL career that saw him play for four teams in four seasons. His best season came in 2002-03 when he posted a 13-2-2 record with an anemic 2.32 GAA and a .925 save percentage with the Plymouth Whalers.

Weber is a 45-game veteran of the ECHL, playing with Atlantic City, Stockton, and Long Beach. His busiest season came in 2005-06 where he played 36 games for the Stockton Thunder, maintaining a .899 save percentage with an expansion franchise that went 18-40-14 on the season.

Finally, the Calgary defensive corps will be strengthened with two new faces, though both are familiar to Calgary hockey fans. Defenseman Dan Ehrman is now eligible after sitting out the 2006-07 season following a transfer from Wilfrid Laurier. Entering his second year in CIS, Ehrman spent five years in the WHL with Calgary, Prince George, Tri-City, and Moose Jaw, playing 239 career games and scoring 53 points.

Defenceman Drew Campbell returns to the Dinos after a one-year hiatus. He last stepped on the ice in 2005-06 for Calgary and enters UC’s Faculty of Law in 2007. This will be his fifth and final season of CIS eligibility.

Atkinson likes the look of his team for the coming season. “We’ve been continuing to build,” he said. “We’re still a young team, but our key recruiting year (2005-06) is all third year players now. We’re in a good spot to take that next step, but we haven’t done anything yet.”

The Dinos head to Saskatoon for non-conference tilts with Regina and Manitoba this weekend before opening the Canada West season with a home-and-home series with Lethbridge next week. Calgary will then travel to Colorado for three contests, taking on Colorado College, Denver, and Air Force over the Thanksgiving weekend.

All-time athletes returning to CIS after playing in the NHL

Don Raleigh
NHL – New York Rangers 1943-44, 1947-56
CIS – Manitoba 1946-47

Pete Kelly
NHL – St. Louis Eagles, Detroit, New York Americans 1934-39, 1940-42
CIS – UNB 1947-50, 1951-52

Cy Thomas
NHL – Chicago & Toronto 1947-48
CIS – Alberta 1948-49

Bill McDonagh
NHL – New York Rangers 1949-50
CIS – UNB 1956-57

Don Keenan
NHL – Boston 1958-59
CIS – St. FX 1955-58, Toronto 1959-60

Pierre Gagne
NHL – Boston 1959-60
CIS – Ottawa 1962-64

Brent Imlach (Punch’s son)
NHL – Toronto 1965-67
CIS – Western Ontario 1967-71, York 1971-72

Darwin McCutcheon
NHL – Toronto 1981-82
CIS – UPEI 1982-86

Darren Lowe
NHL – Pittsburgh 1983-84
CIS – Toronto 1979-83, 1985-86

Dean Clark
NHL – Edmonton 1983-84
(emergency call-up for one game) CIS – Alberta 1986-87

Eric Calder
NHL – Washington 1981-83
CIS – Wilfrid Laurier 1985-88

Jared Aulin
NHL – Los Angeles 2002-03
CIS – Calgary 2007-08