Trail native Travis Gawryletz is on the move, leaving the shores of Lake Erie for the beaches of California.
The Ontario Reign, affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, announced the signing of the Rossland-Trail minor hockey product for the 2011-12 season.
The six-foot-two defenseman played for the Trail Smoke Eaters of the BCHL for two seasons and the Beaver Valley Nitehawks of the Kootenay International Hockey League before spending four years on the University of Minnesota-Duluth (WCHA) team.
He joins another former Smoke Eater, August Aiken, on the Reign, a team that plays in the East Coast Hockey League out of Ontario, California.
Gawryletz, 25, comes to the Reign from the American Hockey League’s Lake Erie Monsters, where he played 120 games and earned six goals and 24 assists for a total of 30 points, in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.
Prior to playing with the Monsters, Gawryletz played with the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals for two seasons racking up 22 points in 72 games.
The Philadelphia Flyers drafted Gawryletz in 2004 in the eighth round, after finishing his junior career with the Smoke Eaters.