Ex-NHLers Hunter Shinkaruk & Andrew MacWilliam sign with EIHL's Cardiff Devils

The Cardiff Devils, the only Welsh-based club in the United Kingdom’s EIHL, signed a pair of Calgary-born ex-NHLers this week: Hunter Shinkaruk and Andrew MacWilliam.

Shinkaruk, 29, was a first-round draft pick of the Vancouver Canucks in 2013, going 24^th overall. However, he played only one game with the Canucks, followed by 14 games with the Calgary Flames over the following few seasons, recording a total of four points as a left winger.

Over the past five seasons, Shinkaruk has played for KHL clubs Kunlun Red Star, Dinamo Riga and Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, HV71 in Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan, and spent last year with the DEL’s Iserlohn Roosters, where he had 14 points in 28 games.

Internationally, Shinkaruk had eight points in six games for Canada at the 2012 IIHF U18 World Championship.

MacWilliam, 34, is a dual Canadian-Australian citizen. A defenseman, he was a seventh-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2008, eventually playing 12 games with the big club in 2014-15, where he tallied two assists. MacWilliam has spent the past five seasons playing with two European clubs owned by Red Bull: Munich in Germany’s DEL and Salzburg in the inter-state ICEHL.

Shinkaruk and MacWilliam join a Cardiff team that includes seven members of Great Britain’s national team, notably Brett Perlini, Ben Davies, Evan Mosley, Mark Richardson and netminder Ben Bowns.

Cardiff finished second in the EIHL standings last season and will compete in this year’s IIHF Continental Cup, entering the competition in the third round in Žilina, Slovakia, November 15 to 17.