The Komets announced Monday that veteran defenseman Guy Dupuis has agreed to terms and will return to the Komet lineup for his 14th season in Fort Wayne and 21st as a pro. Dupuis began his career in 1990 with Adirondack in the AHL after becoming Detroit's third choice in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft while a member of Hull of the QMJHL.
Dupuis, 40, will match Eddie Long's record of 14 seasons as a Komet. The Moncton, New Brunswick native skated his first season in Fort Wayne during 1991-92 and continued to guard the Fort Wayne blue line for eight consecutive years until leaving for an AHL stint in Hersey and IHL visits to Chicago and Michigan in 1999-00. Dupuis skated two years of German elite league play in 2000-01 and 2001-02 before returning to the states for minor league stints with Bakersfield and Kalamazoo.
Dupuis returned to Fort Wayne for the 2005-06 campaign and has remained to set an all-time Fort Wayne Komets career record of 968 games thru the 2009-10 regular season and playoffs. Dupuis has also set Fort Wayne career defenseman records of 116 regular season goals, 505 regular season points, 129 all-time (regular season and playoffs) goals and 549 all time points.
The award-winning defenseman is a four-time league defenseman of the year and has been named the Komets' team defenseman of the year eight times. Dupuis completed 2009-10 tied for IHL leading defenseman with 14 goals and ranked fourth with 43 points.
The Komets also announced that defenseman Steven Oleksy has been added to the preseason roster. Oleksy, 24 (oh-LECK-see), will be entering his second pro season after making his rookie debut last year in ECHL stints with Toledo and Idaho and with the IHL's Port Huron Icehawks. The Chesterfield, Michigan native scored a goal and two points while accumulating 35 penalty minutes with Port Huron in 28 games.
Oleksy finished the season with Idaho scoring a goal, eight assists and 72 penalty minutes during 33 regular season games. Oleksy, the fourth Michigan native to join the Komets, completed three seasons as a member of the Lake Superior State University Lakers in the NCAA before entering the pro ranks last season.
Comments
I have a Guy Dupuis German card & a Bakersfield card :)
With the addition of Oleksy, the Komets have more American born players on the roster than I remember seeing in a long long time.
Welcome back Captain Dupius! Great to have him on the blueline. The day will come when his number is in the rafters. One of the classiest players ever to wear the fireball. He is a leader on the ice, off the ice and in the locker room.
Oops! Dupuis I need to proof read slower. Sorry about that!
I figured Dupuis would sign. This is the year to break even more Komet records.
Interesting that there is no mention of DeAngelis or even Warner in the article.
Welcome back, Guy! Oh, happy day!
Alan because that is just from the Komets release its not an actual article.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD_aYtY11SI&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5x4IPRtVKg&feature=player_embedded
Another tough kid. Not a heavy weight tho...
I am sure Warner is:
A) Weighing his AHL options
B) Waxing his Corvette
C) Signed and being saved to be announced last because he is the biggest signing of the summer.
D) Trying to figure out what the following disclaimer means before he pays his season ticket balance July 31.....(The Komets will continue to be a member of the International Hockey League and participate in the Central Hockey League under the CHL moniker in the Northern Conference. The circuit will consist of 13 CHL teams and five IHL teams for an 18-team coalition).
I had to work that in somewhere......LOL
Guy has done a lot of great things for the Komets. I just hope I do not hear the following as much as I fear: "Komets #2 Guy Dupuis, 2 minutes hooking."
Patience, Alan, I'm hearing good things.
This is the Guy MiteBite has been rumoring......
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=31176
Toughest guy in hockey.
Most Feared Player in Hockey.
He asks other players to "go", and they say "no"......
Any news on a "tough guy"=looks like my guy is waiting for something better :(
The K's are going with tough-guy by committee.
The big kid Pawlawski looks good. Cescon can be a beast. Rodger can throw bombs when allowed and healthy to do so. Schrock is a stud. PC sells insurance.
We'll be ok.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDg2X8lz7U0
Here is my "tough guy" rumor. He was at a MMA fights & was talking about wanting to win a championship before he retires & thought Ft.Wayne might be the place to do it. Right now he's wanting AHL contract. Jorde could throw them when he wanted to.
He would be entertaining.....wonder if anyone would volunteer to fight this guy in the CHL???
Doubtful.
I think Pawlowski will end up as a forward. With Dupuis and Oleksy added to the roster that gives up 8 dmen listed. And if DeAnglis and Warner sign which is probably going to happen thats 10. I honestly don't remember how many Dmen dressed for each game last year
7 normally, one being an extra skater, some games, when Mac was out, they had 8 D-Men.
I would guess they keep 7, 8 tops.
The way they're going we're going to have more d-men signed than most teams have players signed so far in the CHL...LOL
Blake, are all these guys (especially the new younger players) all signed to contracts or have some of them been camp invites???
I'm sure some are just camp invites, but they don't publicly say which is which.
Can't Warner play both forward and defense? I know he's more of a d-man, but...he could surprise us. Or the Frankes could. You never know this season! I gotta admit, we do seem pretty loaded with defense right now. But we did sort of blow the rest of the payroll on Curadeau as far as forwards go....but it's not like we don't have PC, Schrock, Ward, Thomas....ya gotta admit, we have a lot of guys who can put the puck in the net. I think we will be ok.
I don't remember Jorde being all that big of a deal when I saw him here. Seems like Mac took care of him pretty well, from what I remember. Or is my memory wrong again? It just seems like he was supposed to be this big scary dude and he went down like....well never mind. It's a family blog and all. I was just gonna say the sun in the west, is all. ;)
Jorde could toss some knuckles when he wanted to... problem was he was the least motivated player in the history of minor league hockey.
Sugden would be awsome in Orange. I can't see the Franke's ponying up the kind of cash he could get up in the Quebec goon league. He'd have to want a chance to win a Cup.
Guy is back.
I see....motivation is kinda needed in this sport. Yep, I can see that being an issue. JM, I meant to comment earlier.....I had sort of noticed the American born player thing myself....not that it matters, just interesting. No Russians at all so far. Since my goal is to learn Russian and I can't find a class in this city....bummer for me. LOL...
Mixed feelings on the Dupuis signing. Certainly classy, certainly the face of the franchise at this point, certainly still better than a 3rd line defenseman. However if he is playing on the first line logging serious minutes....hooking, holding........CHL referees call a tighter game than the Langdons of the world.
Jorde Never impressed me as a fighter. I always thought of him as just unmotovated. Two times here and was always glad to see him go. Unless he found some kind of new found insperation I don't see him in a Komet uniform.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W68BzOiLK3w&feature=related
Here is a Jorde fight with Legault
Thanks Y2K. You're absolutely right. That was a news release and not an article.
Also a "thanks" to Blake. " Patience, Alan, I'm hearing good things." More times than not when you've used that kind of language it signals imminent signings. If that is true in this instance it would mean that every defenseman from last years squad ( with the exception of Bertram who retired) has been re-signed. Add to the list Cescon and the kids, Cianfrini, Pawlowski, and Oleskey. I would think your defense coming into camp would be pretty well set.
Time for another sniper on offense, and maybe Rob Nolan in goal and this team would have a pretty strong foundation.
Just my opinion. Antone else have any thoughts on it?
Alan....I'm all for Nolan. Right there with you on that signing. And I'd love one more guy who like you said could be a sniper....never can hurt, although I think that guy might be here already in OC. But 2 would be better than one. And our defense looks awesome, so signing a couple more could only be a great thing! What could possibly make this team any better?
I like the way it's settling in so far...
I'm still in the camp that wants Haun back..... I understand they say he's asking for too much; but he is a darn fine goalie...