Robbie Earl

Robert Wayne Earl (born June 2, 1985) is an American professional ice hockey forward, currently playing for the SCL Tigers in the National League (NL). Earl was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Los Angeles, California.

For other people of the same or similar name, see Robbie Earle and Robert Earl (disambiguation).
Robbie Earl
Born (1985-06-02) June 2, 1985
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight 195 lb (88 kg; 13 st 13 lb)
Position Left Wing
Shoots Left
NL team
Former teams		 SCL Tigers
Toronto Maple Leafs
Minnesota Wild
EC Red Bull Salzburg
Rapperswil-Jona Lakers
EV Zug
Färjestad BK
EHC Biel
NHL Draft 187th overall, 2004
Toronto Maple Leafs
Playing career 2006–present

Playing career

Early career

As a youth, Earl played in the 1999 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the Los Angeles Junior Kings minor ice hockey team.[1]

He played two years as a forward with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program Under-18 and Under-17 Programs. He ranked third on the under-18 team in 2002–03 with 33 points and 20 goals in 53 games, finishing fourth at the 2003 IIHF World Under-18 Championship in Yaroslavl, Russia. He was the game-winning goal scorer in the championship game of the 2002 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Stonewell, Manitoba and was fourth in scoring for the NTDP Under-17 Team with 22 goals and 16 assists in 58 games during 2001–02. He played for future Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves at the NTDP.[2]

Collegiate

In Earl's first season with the Badgers, he scored 27 points playing in a career high 42 games. As a Freshman he led the Badgers in points that season. He also managed to be nominated to the All-Rookie Team, tallying six power-play goals and three game-winning goals that year. His career first hat trick came in overtime against then league-leading North Dakota. During his freshman season, Earl was awarded with Insidecollegehockey.com’s National Player of the Week award and the WCHA Rookie of the Week award. He was the Toronto Maple Leafs’ fourth choice, 187th overall, in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.[3]

The next year, he improved his point total enough to make the roster for the Second-Team All-WCHA. This successful year led him to a team-best 20 goals, eighth total ranked eighth in the WCHA. Earl also tied the team lead with five-game-winning goals, sharing second in the WCHA where his second career hat trick came against the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on November 19. He also won the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week in that same time span, the first for the University of Wisconsin–Madison since the 2000–01 season. Earl ranked third in the plus/minus department, with a rating of +17. Additionally, he started the year with a seven-game scoring streak then broke the record the same year, with eight, from January 14 to February 12.

Earl during his tenure with the Toronto Marlies.

During his Junior season with Wisconsin, Earl scored a goal in the final of the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament against the Boston College Eagles, helping the Badgers win the NCAA Men's Hockey Championship. He also scored twice against the University of Maine Black Bears in the Frozen Four semifinal. As a result, Earl was selected to the Frozen Four All-Tournament team and named the Most Outstanding player.[4] After saying he would return to the Badgers for his senior season at the school's rally for the men's and women's Frozen Four Champions, two days later he announced that he decided to join the Maple Leafs instead.

Professional

Following claiming the National Title, Earl joined the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs' American Hockey League affiliate and saw action in the team's first round North Division semifinal series against the Grand Rapids Griffins in for the 2006 Calder Cup Playoffs. The following year, he scored 12 goals and 18 assists and racked up 50 penalty minutes in 67 games.

During the 2007–08 season, Earl made his NHL debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs on February 2, 2008 against the Ottawa Senators, recording one assist.[5]

In the following season, on January 21, 2009 he was traded by the Leafs to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Ryan Hamilton and was assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Houston Aeros. In the 2009–10 season, he was recalled to Minnesota and scored his first NHL goal on November 15, 2009 against Michael Leighton of the Carolina Hurricanes.

After two full seasons in the Minnesota Wild organization, Earl left as a free agent to begin his European career by training with Dinamo Riga of the Kontinental Hockey League on a try-out basis. Released without a contract by Riga, Earl then signed a one-year deal with EC Red Bull Salzburg of the Austrian Hockey League (EBEL) on August 12, 2011.[6] During the 2011–12 season, Earl led Salzburg with 22 goals and contributed with 50 points in 45 games.

Earl continued his European venture when he was signed to a one-year contract with Rapperswil-Jona Lakers of the Swiss National League A on March 14, 2012. In leading the cellar-dwelling Lakers in each offensive category during the 2012–13 season, Earl was extended on a two-year contract to remain with Rapperswil on February 6, 2013. In November 2013, Earl joined EV Zug signing a contract until the end of the 2014 season. After also spending the 2014-15 season with Zug, he moved to Sweden for the 2015–16 campaign, joining SHL side Färjestad BK, where he played 33 games. Earl left the club in late January 2016 and returned to Switzerland, signing with EHC Biel[7] until the end of the 2016–17 season.[8]

After four seasons with Biel, Earl left having concluded his contract having earlier signed a two-year contract to continue in the NL with the SCL Tigers on December 13, 2018.[9]

Personal

The Badgers' official site lists his grandparents as Tom and Pat McCusker. He also has two sisters, Brianne and Erin. He attended Ann Arbor Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as part of the USA Hockey National Development Team. Before that he spent ninth grade at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, California. He was majoring in consumer science at Wisconsin before leaving early for the NHL.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs
Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2000–01 Los Angeles Jr. Kings MCA 29 48 22 72 14 — — — — —
2001–02 U.S. National Development Team USDP 58 22 16 38 43 — — — — —
2002–03 U.S. National Development Team USDP 53 20 13 33 76 — — — — —
2003–04 University of Wisconsin WCHA 42 14 13 27 46 — — — — —
2004–05 University of Wisconsin WCHA 41 20 24 44 62 — — — — —
2005–06 University of Wisconsin WCHA 42 24 26 50 56 — — — — —
2005–06 Toronto Marlies AHL 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0
2006–07 Toronto Marlies AHL 67 12 18 30 50 — — — — —
2007–08 Toronto Marlies AHL 66 14 33 47 56 — — — — —
2007–08 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 9 0 1 1 0 — — — — —
2008–09 Toronto Marlies AHL 36 2 8 10 28 — — — — —
2008–09 Houston Aeros AHL 33 4 5 9 26 20 5 4 9 14
2009–10 Houston Aeros AHL 41 10 8 18 16 — — — — —
2009–10 Minnesota Wild NHL 32 6 0 6 6 — — — — —
2010–11 Houston Aeros AHL 69 24 31 55 42 24 5 7 12 20
2010–11 Minnesota Wild NHL 6 0 0 0 0 — — — — —
2011–12 EC Red Bull Salzburg EBEL 45 22 28 50 70 6 4 3 7 6
2012–13 Rapperswil-Jona Lakers NLA 48 22 23 45 48 — — — — —
2013–14 Rapperswil-Jona Lakers NLA 15 7 2 9 10 — — — — —
2013–14 EV Zug NLA 31 13 16 29 16 — — — — —
2014–15 EV Zug NLA 48 19 26 45 34 6 1 1 2 4
2015–16 Färjestad BK SHL 33 6 15 21 18 — — — — —
2015–16 EHC Biel NLA 7 4 6 10 0 — — — — —
2016–17 EHC Biel NLA 46 15 24 39 24 5 2 2 4 6
2017–18 EHC Biel NL 42 14 20 34 55 11 2 4 6 25
2018–19 EHC Biel NL 39 7 17 24 16 10 2 6 8 2
2019–20 SCL Tigers NL 35 6 13 19 14 — — — — —
NHL totals 47 6 1 7 6 — — — — —

International
Year Team Event Result GP G A Pts PIM
2003 United States WJC18 4th 6 2 2 4 8
Junior totals 6 2 2 4 8

Awards and honours
Award Year
College
WCHA All-Rookie Team 2003–04
WCHA Second Team 2004–05
All-NCAA All-Tournament Team 2006 [4][10]
Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player 2006 [4]

See also

References
  1. "Pee-Wee players who have reached NHL or WHA" (PDF). Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament. 2018. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  2. "All-Time Coaches". www.usahockeyntdp.com. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  3. Forbes, Andrew (2020-05-01). "Revisiting John Ferguson Jr.'s Draft – 2004". The Hockey Writers. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  4. "Robbie Earl: Most Outstanding Player". USCHO.com. 2006-04-06. Retrieved 2006-04-06.
  5. "Leafs 4, Senators 2 Event summary". National Hockey League. 2008-02-08. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
  6. "Red Bulls capture North American Earl" (in German). EC Red Bull Salzburg. 2011-08-12. Archived from the original on 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
  7. "KLART: Robbie Earl lämnar Färjestad". Aftonbladet. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
  8. "Robbie Earl per sofort zum EHC Biel / Pär Arlbrandt verlässt den EHC Biel per sofort - EHC Biel-Bienne - Die Offizielle Seite des EHC Biel | Le site officielle du HC Bienne". ehcb.ch. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
  9. "Robbie Earl signs with Tigers" (in German). SCL Tigers. December 13, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  10. "NCAA Frozen Four Records" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Peter Mannino		 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player
2006		 Succeeded by
Justin Abdelkader
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