Peoria defensive duo sign NAHL tenders
June 4, 2014
The Peoria Mustangs, proud members of the NA3HL, are pleased to announce that two defensemen have signed NAHL tender agreements. Defenseman Brendan Murphy has signed an NAHL tender agreement with the Corpus Christi IceRays and defenseman Austin Ziakas has signed an NAHL tender agreement with the Keystone Ice Miners.
Murphy, 18, just completed his second season of playing for the Mustangs in the NA3HL. The native of St. Louis, Missouri, had a career season in 2013-14 as he registered 28 points in 44 games played. He also had five points in Peoria’s five playoff games. Last season, Murphy (5’11/200) recorded 16 points in 45 games played.
In 89 career NA3HL regular season games, Murphy has 44 career points. He was also selected and played in the 2014 NA3HL Top Prospects Tournament for Team Central, where he recorded an assist in the three-game event. Prior to playing for Peoria, Murphy played for the St. Louis Selects in the NAPHL.
Ziakas, 19, also just completed his second season with the Mustangs and like Murphy, Ziakas (6’4/195) also had a career year. The native of Palatine, Illinois led all Msutangs defensemen in points with 33 this season. He was also a +34, which ranked 2nd on the Mustangs roster. Last season, Ziakas played in 42 games and recorded nine points.
Ziakas recorded four points in five Mustang playoff games this past season and he was also selected to play in the 2014 NA3HL Top Prospects Tournament for Team Central.
A total of four players from the Mustangs were tendered by NAHL teams this past season as Murphy and Ziakas join teammates Brennan Anderson (Lone Star) and Andrew Scofield (Kenai River) as those players who have signed tenders.
A tender is a contract, of sorts, a player signs announcing his intentions to play for that particular NAHL team and that NAHL team only. Once a player signs a tender with an NAHL team, his playing rights belong to that team within the NAHL and he may not be recruited by any other NAHL team. Each team is granted ten (10) tenders, which include one tender exclusively used on players from the NA3HL - plus or minus any trades - which become active on Nov. 1. Tendered players are not eligible for the NAHL draft, which was held on June 3, 2014.