Anaheim Calling Blogger Draft Results

Please welcome all of our new contributors here at Anaheim Calling!!!

Adam Hutchinson (Adamhutchison31)

Adam Hutchison is a university student studying Media and Communications. He is currently living just outside of Vancouver, BC. Yes, that Vancouver. Don’t worry though, despite living near Vancouver, he definitely is not a Canucks fan, just a die-hard Ducks fan who lives north of the border. Despite only getting to see the team live two or three times a season, he still manages to watch every game. His passion for the Anaheim Ducks started at a young age. He was on vacation down in Anaheim and decided to head to the Pond to watch a game and left having found a team he was going to follow for the rest of his life.

His favorite Anaheim Duck is Jakob Silfverberg, and his favorite moment as a Ducks fan was tossing a hat onto the ice at Honda Center after his hat-trick during that 7-1 thrashing of the Devils back in 2016. He was previously the communications intern with the Abbotsford Heat, before they left the city. Adam also has a tattoo on the back of his arm, Roman numerals of the number 2007 (wonder what happened that year).

Justin Ritzel (Justin Ritzel)

Justin has been an avid fan of the Anaheim Ducks since the late 1990s after seeing Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne dash up and down the ice while the rest of the league was content with boring hockey and the trap. He recalls his favorite hockey memory during Game 6 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals against the New Jersey Devils when Kariya returned from a devastating hit by Scott Stevens to drill a slapshot past goaltender Martin Brodeur.

Professionally, Justin is a local sports reporter for The Citizen, a print/online publication based in Auburn, N.Y. covering area high school and collegiate athletics. Prior to his time at The Citizen, Justin spent two seasons as an intern in the Rochester Americans’ public relations department.

Josh Gane (JGane8)

Josh Gane is a 24 year-old Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Lakers fanatic. He is a former athlete and has deep knowledge of the Anaheim Ducks. His love and experience of sports helps develop a unique perspective on players, performances, game matchups, breaking news, and coaching staff. Josh graduated from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, AZ with a BS in Business Management. His favorite player from the Ducks organization is Teemu Selanne because who doesn’t love Teemu? His favorite player on the team today is Cam Fowler because of his playmaking and skating ability. Josh’s favorite Los Angeles Laker of all-time is Kobe Bryant because of his sheer talent and unmatched work ethic. His favorite player on the Lakers currently is Lonzo Ball because of the potential that he could reach.

Josh currently resides in Orange County, CA where he writes a lifestyle blog for fun called Gane Style. He frequents Pacific City in Huntington Beach and takes pride in staying in tip-top shape. Josh also has a Disneyland pass where he and his girlfriend and friends go spend some time being kids again. Josh is very excited for what the Anaheim Ducks season is going to look like and hopes you are too.

Jake Rudolph (jrudolph91)

Jake has been a Ducks fan dating back to the great days of Kariya and Selanne, but his die-hard fandom really began during the 05-06 playoff run to the Western Conference Final. After that, he lived and died with the team from the highs of the 07 Cup victory to the lows of Dan Sexton, Second Line Winger. It was the discovery of websites such as Anaheim Calling that really took his fandom to another level. Anaheim Calling gave him a place to read and discuss Ducks content that could not be found elsewhere.

As an engineer, the rise of advanced statistics really intrigued him. He spent time researching these various statistics and realized how valuable they can be to understanding the game. He is planning to utilize the various stats here in his articles. He is very excited to contribute to this great website.

Kyle Kiekenapp (Kiekenapp)

I'd like to introduce you to Kyle Kiekenapp, pronounced (Kick-eh-napp), at least I think. You know how the Germans are. He is originally from Laguna Niguel, CA. He went to Dana Hills High School, and somehow made it to Houston, TX after that. Then he realized the hell of a life it is in Houston and finally moved back to Orange County to go to Culinary School. Kyle lived in Dallas for a little and went to a couple of Dallas Stars games, the last one was on Halloween of 14' where Nate Thompson scored in OT to clinch the Victory. He was raised as a Football fan, and nothing else. It only took him a short amount of time to acclimate into hockey with the help of a wonderful movie series cough Mighty Ducks cough.

Kyle will be writing about any and all breaking news and reports about the Ducks, and around the NHL. Kyle will stay extremely active from sources online to keep us up to date to what is going on in the NHL and around the Anaheim Ducks. This will be his first time writing for a blog and he is extremely excited to be given this opportunity.

Peter Syring (QuackAttackSyring)

I'd like to introduce our next, and very excited, new member - Peter Syring. Peter grew up in Southern California and has been a die-hard Ducks fan since he could understand hockey. The team was in fact created the year he was born - legends say this was no coincidence.

He now lives in Boise, Idaho and still proudly reps his Anaheim Ducks. He has worked with the Idaho Steelheads ECHL hockey team, runs a fantasy hockey league, loves to talk anything hockey and will spend more time doing so than he probably should (his wife will attest to that). Lastly, he has an undefeated record on NHL17 when playing with the Ducks and can provide evidence if needed.

Peter is newer to writing, but that doesn't make him any less excited to get his feet wet. He'd been looking for an opportunity like this to come along and jumped at the chance, and we couldn't support that more. He's eager to learn on the job and is confident in his growth and abilities. Peter will be joining our gameday staff and we can't wait to see his talents come to life on our team. Please feel free to reach out to him as he would love to get to know everyone who shares his passion for the Ducks.

"Can't wait for the season to get started! GO DUCKS!" - Peter Syring

Jeremy Coffman

Jeremy Coffman was born May 17th, 1985 in the city of Rowland Heights, CA. He attended John A. Rowland High School where he played football and was the teams starting quarterback and captain for 2 years. He later enrolled at Whittier College where he played football for one season but later transferred to Fullerton Jr. College. During this time, he worked part-time at Starbucks as a Barista. He later decided to work more full-time and left Fullerton to pursue a management position at Starbucks where he is still currently employed and has been a store manager for the last 10 years. It was at Starbucks where he met his now wife, Sandy. They recently married on November 12th, 2016 and purchased their first home together in the city of Covina, Ca (Congrats!!! -JC).

While growing up in the 90s, Jeremy's first sport memories were watching the LA Rams play every Sunday, listening to Chick Hearn and Vin Scully calling the Laker and Dodger games, and watching the "Great One" play for the Kings. His Dad was a huge LA fan, but in 1993 Jeremy decided to break his LA ties and became a fan of The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Perhaps Disney helped persuade him, but nevertheless the Ducks were his new team. With Rowland Heights only 20 minutes away from Angel Stadium and the Honda Center, Jeremy attended his first California Angel game in the summer of 1995 where he became a fan and never turned back. Since then he has always felt closer to the OC instead of his LA roots and has been a die-hard fan of both teams to this day.

Ben Thomasian (TheBennyFromAus)

How to introduce someone who for all intents and purposes is part of the furniture and doesn’t really need an introduction? (Benny killing me with the accuracy here... -JC) Perhaps a background for the uninitiated? Obviously Benny is known about the traps for his absolute rightedness, but how did that all come about?

Rumors tell that it all began with a Sega mega drive and NHL94 being played until stupid o’clock most nights of the week, which naturally led to a love of Ed Belfour and then future disgust at how easy goalies actually have it. Standing there and getting hit with a puck isn’t skill, its just crazy pants. Part of his family lived in the Orange County area, which naturally led to going to Ducks games at Arrowhead Pond despite the family being filthy Kings fans. And then the greatest Russian was traded unto the mighty name. The man who defense was nearly as amazing as his HOF-worthy talent. None other than Sergei Fedorov. From there it was down the rabbit hole.

How did he get where he is today? Well you can blame that on one of the site founders, Daniel. Having already been burnt out on sports, after working in the field, studying, playing, and the unending arguments (still waiting on that article praising Cogliano, btw) with Daniel re-kindled the fire to work in the field. The seductive sultry monies of the resources sector derailed the bus for a time, but it’s back road and full steam ahead now. Follow him @UnsoundScience if you fancy never seeing an actual real tweet and love retweets of other much smarter people science-ing.

Eric Stites (DucksJaggernaut)

Eric was born and raised in Orange County and went to Pacifica High School in Garden Grove. He and his family moved to Arizona in the fall of 2013 and he attended Northern Arizona University to study finance and marketing. He graduated from NAU in May of 2017 and now works full-time for a company called TEKsystems out of Tempe, Arizona. His family have always been sports fans, but the focus was mostly on football and basketball during Eric's childhood.

Eric began watching hockey during the 2010-2011 season. He had been to both Ducks and Kings games growing up, but luckily, he chose correctly between the two. He regrets to inform you that he was not a hockey fan at the time when Anaheim lifted the Cup in 2007, and he vows to invent time travel to rectify this mistake. He decided to give watching hockey a serious chance in 2010 and immediately fell in love with the game. He studies the game regularly and learns as much as he can about the little details that separate the best teams from the worst. He is also a fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Toronto Blue Jays, so fanhood-caused disappointments and depressions have become commonplace in his life. He looks forward to getting to know all of the readers and Ducks fans in the SB Nation community, and he is very excited to be able to share the best Ducks moments in the coming seasons with all of you.