Kostadine Returns for Third Season with Mallards
 
MOLINE, Ill. (September 13, 2012) – The Quad City Mallards of the “AA” Central Hockey League today announced they have re-signed right wing Jason Kostadine.  Per club policy, no contract terms were announced.

Kostadine, 28, returns for a third season with the Mallards after scoring five goals and totaling 17 points while also finished fourth in the CHL with 189 penalty minutes last year.  Kostadine played in each of the Mallards’ 66 regular season games in each of his first two campaigns with the club.  
 
"Jason brings plenty of character, toughness and work ethic every time he steps onto the ice and at the same time provides a veteran presence in the dressing room," said Mallards coach and general manager Terry Ruskowski.  "The qualities Jason brings to the table are vital to any successful team."
 
Kostadine first suited up for the Mallards in 2010-11, when he scored three times and added five assists and also spent 149 minutes in the penalty box.  The 6’ 2”, 210-pound St. Louis native has registered at least 135 minutes in penalties each of the last five years and in seven of his first eight professional seasons.  Kostadine first joined the Mallards after playing against Quad City for the International Hockey League’s Port Huron Icehawks in 2009-10. 
 
Before returning to North America with the Icehawks, Kostadine skated in Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League with the Hull Stigrays in 2008-09.  The 6’ 2”, 210-pound St. Louis native spent his first four years in the ECHL, where he suited up for the Texas Wildcatters, Stockton Thunder, Reading Royals, Augusta Lynx and Bakersfield Condors.  As a rookie with the Wildcatters in 2004-05 he set a career high for penalty minutes in a season by piling up 224 minutes in the box. 

Over the course of his career Kostadine has scored 35 goals, produced 91 points and run up 1,289 penalty minutes in 470 games.

Before turning pro, Kostadine played for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Hull Olympiques for two seasons and completed his junior career by taking to the ice with the Quebec Remparts in 2002-03.  He topped 200 penalty minutes in each of his final two junior seasons and registered 18 goals, 54 points and a total of 605 PIM’s in 195 career games in the QMJHL.  Kostadine was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the eighth round of the 2002 National Hockey League Draft with the two hundred fifty-first overall pick.