Former Rangers forward Sean Avery has some more fight left in him.
Avery, an enforcer for parts of six seasons with the Blueshirts who led the league in penalty minutes in two different seasons, is returning to hockey after signing a contract with Orlando Solar Bears, the ECHL affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The team announced the signing on Wednesday, just a day after Avery posted a video of himself skating with the team. The 41-year-old hasn’t played in an NHL game since Dec. 10, 2011. He had appeared in 15 games for the Rangers that season before he was demoted to the AHL, and eventually retired.
Avery also said he wants to eventually get back to the NHL.
“I’ve got seven months to be physically ready to walk on to an NHL training camp,” Avery said on the Blackballed podcast with James Di Fiore. “My timing is coming back and it’s getting sharper every single time. I can feel it happening.”
Avery was surrounded by plenty of controversy during his NHL career. “The Avery Rule” came to be after he faced Devils goalie Martin Brodeur and held up his hands and stick to distract him during the 2008 playoffs, which the league responded by making such an act unsportsmanlike conduct. After the end of that season, his first tenure in New York ended as he joined the Stars, but was suspended indefinitely by the league after comments made about a former teammate’s girlfriend, who he had previously dated.
The suspension came in December, and by March of 2009, Avery was back with the Rangers, where he played four more seasons.
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