The Sheridan Hawks of the NA3HL are pleased to announce that goaltender James Downie has signed a North American Hockey League tender agreement with the Maryland Black Bears of the NAHL’s East Division.
Downie, 20, just completed his first season of junior hockey in the NA3HL. The 6’2/208 lbs. native of Cattai, Australia, spent the majority of the season with the Hawks after making his debut with the Louisiana Drillers at the start of the season.
While in Sheridan, Downie appeared in 23 games and posted a 16-5-2 record with a 2.38 goals against average and a .919 save percentage. While with Louisiana, Downie was 2-2 with a 3.24 goals against average and a .875 save percentage.
He was also selected to and played in the 2020 NA3HL Top Prospects Tournament for the Frontier Division team.
Prior to playing in the NA3HL, Downie spent two seasons playing for the Meijer AAA 18U team in the NAPHL in 2017-18 and again in 2018-19.
Downie also played in the 2018 NAHL 18U Top Prospects Tournament for the NAPHL East Team.
A tender is a contract, of sorts, a player signs announcing his intentions to play for that particular NAHL team and that NAHL team only. Once a player signs a tender with an NAHL team, his playing rights belong to that team within the NAHL and he may not be recruited by any other NAHL team. Each team is granted ten (10) tenders, which include one tender exclusively used on players from the NA3HL – plus or minus any trades – which became active on Nov. 1. Tendered players are not eligible for the NAHL draft, which will be held on July 21, 2020.