Eagles Bring Back Beatty, Birnie & Filipic
WINDSOR, Colo. - The Governors' Cup champion Colorado Eagles announced today the re-signing of three players. Tough guys Jason Beatty, Jay Birnie and Fraser Filipic will all be returning from last season's Northern Conference championship team.
Filipic, entering his seventh pro season (all with the Eagles), is known around the league for his knockout punches and is consistently voted one of the league's top fighters, pound-for-pound, in the CHL's annual 'Best of the Best' poll. The 5-foot-9-inch forward is the franchise's all-time penalty minutes leader with 1,184 and also packs some offensive punch, ranking 11th on the team's all-time points list with 110 (40-70-110) in 276 games.
Beatty, returning to Colorado for the third season in a row, played his first three pro years with the CHL's now-defunct Lubbock Cotton Kings, highlighted by six games at the end of the 2005-06 season with the AHL's San Antonio Rampage. The 6-foot-1-inch, 215-pound defenseman brings a solid frame to the Eagles' blue line, while averaging over two PIMs-per-game in his career.
Birnie (6-foot-3-inches, 220-pounds) is primarily a defenseman, but can play forward in a pinch. He'll be entering his fourth professional season (all with the Eagles) after posting career highs in games played (59), assists (12) and points (14) in the 2008-09 regular season. He followed up that career year by also accumulating a career high in assists (5) and points (6) in the playoffs. Birnie (627) ranks fifth on the team's all-time PIMs list, trailing notable players: Filipic, Greg Pankewicz (1,130), Ryan Tobler (818) and Les Borsheim (712).
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