A little less than a year after signing his first professional contract, Cloverdale's Tyler Wotherspoon is in the National Hockey League (NHL).
Wotherspoon was called up by the Calgary Flames from the American Hockey League's (AHL) Abbotsford Heat last Thursday, and a day later played in his first NHL game at the Saddledome in Calgary against the New York Islanders. Saturday night, he was playing in front of family and friends when the Flames visited the Vancouver Canucks for a game broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada.
A 6'2" 203 lbs. defenceman, Wotherspoon played 11:15 in a 4-3 win over the Islanders on Friday night and saw 12 minutes of ice time while collecting his first NHL point with an assist in a 2-1 loss in Vancouver.
Wotherspoon was drafted in the second round, 57th overall, by the Flames in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. A member of the Portland Winter Hawks at the time, he played two more years with the Western Hockey League team before signing an entry level contract with the Flames on March 31 of last year.
He made his professional debut with the AHL's Heat in October, and played 48 games before being called up by the Flames, scoring once and adding nine assists in Abbotsford. He was also a team-best plus-13.