One of the Surrey Eagles’ top forwards from last season is returning to the BC Hockey League after a brief foray into the Western Hockey League.
On Friday, the Eagles announced that 20-year-old Holden Katzalay is back with the club. He spent the 2018-’19 with the South Surrey-based team, and was scoring at more than a point-per-game clip with the team last year before leaving the team in December to join the WHL’s Vancouver Giants.
Katzalay went from a top-line scorer with the Eagles to more of a depth player with the Giants, but still tallied six goals and 10 assists in 39 WHL games.
Katzalay already had WHL experience before coming to Surrey, having played 59 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds in 2017-’18.
Before leaving for the Giants last year, Katzalay had 33 points in 28 BCHL games.
“I’m just excited to see a bunch of the guys again that are still here from last year. Lots of really good guys on the team, and with the additions that have been made it seems like we’re going to have really strong team that has a chance to do really well,” Katzalay said in a news release posted to the team’s website.
In the same release, Eagles head coach Cam Keith expressed surprised that Katzalay became available to the BCHL team.
“Katzalay’s availability was unexpected due to his success last year in the WHL. A pure goal scorer with this group of playmakers will be fun to witness game in and game out,” Keith said.
The BCHL season isn’t slated to start until December. As per COVID-19 return-to-play protocols, any new player must quarantine for 14 days before joining their new team.
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