Tigers sign veteran

The bayreuth tigers’ squad for the coming season – it has not yet been decided whether they will start in the DEL2 or oberliga – has grown to nine players. New to the tigers squad is experienced center forward mark heatley.
The 33-year-old played for second-league heilbronn falcons last season and scored 14 goals (18 assists) in 49 games. "Mark is very versatile in his game and takes on responsibility. Especially its bully strength will help us", tigers coach petri kujala is quoted in a press release.

500 games in the second league

In the past season, heatley won 57.63 percent of his bullies, making him one of the top players in this category. With the experience of more than 500 games (142 goals, 205 assists) in the second league, the left wing should take a key position in the squad of the tigers. "We have been looking for a german mittelsturmer and found it in mark. His experience is very important for us and we are looking forward to his leadership qualities", kujala says. Born in freiburg, germany, heatley has skated in nine seasons in germany’s second highest division over the past ten years. From EHC munich, his path took him via wolfe freiburg, the bietigheim steelers, SC riessersee and most recently the heilbronn falcons to bayreuth. In the 2016/2017 season, heatley was active in england with manchester storm. Early in his career he played in north america for the universities of wisconsin and toronto.
The father of the german-canadian, murray heatley, also played many years in germany with SC riessersee and freiburg.