The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have signed Yale defenseman Billy Sweezey to an AHL contract for the 2020-21 season, the team announced on Monday.
"I'm extremely excited to take this next step and can't thank enough my teammates, coaches, and staff here at Yale who helped me in the last four years," Sweezy said in a Yale team release. "My time at Yale was one of the best experiences of my life, and I made memories that I will hold forever. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the Penguins organization and appreciate the support I have gotten from friends and family."
Sweezey, 24, is a right-handed shot, providing some much needed right-handed depth on the blue line in the pipeline. He stands at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds, and plays a hard, physical style, and has been described as having a "mean streak."
Sweezey had his senior season at Yale come to an end when the season was shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Bulldogs (15-15-2) had just completed a ECAC Hockey Tournament series win over Union and were awaiting the quarterfinal series when the ECAC cancelled the remainder of the tournament.
Sweezey recorded three goals and 26 assists in 127 games over his four collegiate seasons. In his senior season, he was Yale's ECAC Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year candidate. A biomedical engineering major, Sweezey was the vice president of the Biomedical Engineering Society at Yale and worked as a consultant to a biotech venture capitalist in the summers.
"We are all really excited about Billy earning an opportunity to compete at the professional level," said Yale coach Keith Allain. "Billy was the ultimate student-athlete, balancing a very challenging engineering degree with high-level, Division I hockey. He is a tough, gritty competitor, a great teammate, and intelligent about the game and his role in it. Those qualities will serve him well in pro hockey."
Prior to joining Yale, Sweezey spent a year in the USHL as an alternate captain with the Chicago Steel. As a 16-year-old, Sweezey played Junior A hockey with the South Shore Kings in Foxboro, Mass., where he was teammates with John Marino.
Sweezey has attended NHL development camps in the past for both the Bruins and Sabres.
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