Photo Courtesy: Team Shred

Glendale, AZ- One of the Portland Pirates’ best players during the 2012-13 season will remain in the Phoenix Coyotes organization for next season and beyond.

Phoenix Coyotes General Manager Dave Maloney announced on Thursday that the club had re-signed Rob Klinkhammer to a two-year contract.  Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Klinkhammer spent 52 games this season with the Portland Pirates, scoring 14 goals and 30 assists for a total of 44 points, good enough for fourth most on the team, despite playing only three quarters of the AHL season.

His strong effort earned him a recall to Phoenix on March 1, but it only lasted four days before he was sent back to Portland.  He played for the Pirates in a game against the Connecticut Whale in Hartford on March 5, scoring a shootout goal in the Pirates 4-3 victory that night.  It would be his final game of the season for Portland, as he was called up again on March 8 and remained in Phoenix until the end of the season.

Klinkhammer scored in his Coyotes debut the next night at Jobing.com Arena in a 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars.  On March 12, he became just the third player in Phoenix Coyotes history to score a goal in each of his first two games with the team when he scored again in a 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings, again in Glendale.

He ended up playing 22 games with Phoenix this season, the most he’s ever played in the NHL during his four-year professional career, scoring five goals and six assists for 11 points.  He also was a plus-7 in the NHL.

“We are very pleased to sign Rob to a multi-year contract,” said Maloney in a written press release.  “Rob is an excellent skater and hard working forward who has earned a spot on our roster with his strong play last season.  We look forward to having him on our team next year.”

“I’m ecstatic,” said Klinkhammer in a feature on phoenixcoyotes.com after the deal was announced.  “I love everything about playing in Phoenix – my teammates, the coaches, and management.  I think I fit in very well with the way they want to play and the identity of the Coyotes.”

Klinkhammer, a 6-foot-3, 214 pound forward, had previously played 16 total games in the NHL prior to this season (one with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010-11, 15 with the Ottawa Senators in 2011-12).  The 26 year-old Lethbridge, Alberta native originally joined the Phoenix organization after signing a one-year, two-way contract as a free agent on July 12, 2012.  He was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 had he not resigned.

Portions of this article courtesy of phoenixcoyotes.com