Utica Comets Director of Hockey Operations Pat Conacher has announced that the club have signed forward Michael Pereira to a professional tryout contract (PTO). Conacher also announced that the Comets have reassigned forward Curtis Valk to the Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL.
Pereira, 24, scored once and added an assist in 14 games and picked up six penalty minutes for the Comets. With the Reading Royals of the ECHL this season he has recorded 43 points (19-24-43) in 47 games. Last season, his first as a pro, he collected 7 points (4-3-7) in 22 games for the Stockton Thunder.
The New Haven, CT native played four years at UMass-Amherst, where he collected 107 points (53-54-107) in 135 career games. After he completed his four years at UMass-Amherst in 2014, he signed an ATO with the American Hockey League’s Worcester Sharks and scored once in three games.
Valk, 23, collected four points (1-3-4) and two penalty minutes in seven games for the Comets. Last season he also did not record a point in one game for the Comets. This season, he has appeared in 29 ECHL games with Kalamazoo since he returned from a lower body injured suffered last season. In those 29 games he has recorded 32 points (16-16-32), and is currently riding a season-high seven game points streak for the Wings.
Last season, Valk scored 11 goals and assisted on 19 others in 31 games for the K-Wings. He was named the ECHL Player of the Month for October, and was selected to the ECHL All-Star team.
A native of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Valk recorded 255 points (125-130-225) in 270 career Western Hockey League games with the Medicine Hat Tigers. During the 2013-14 season, he was tied for fourth in the league with 47 goals and was 11th with 92 points.
