McGill's Dorion becomes third member of CIS champs to sign pro pact this month

Source: McGill Sports Info

MONTREAL - Marc-André Dorion of St. Hubert, Que., has become the third member of McGill University's national champion men's hockey team, to sign a contract to play professional hockey.

The 5-foot-11, 185-pound defenceman inked a two-year pact this week to play for EHC Linz, recently-crowned champions of the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga, the top league in Austria.

Dorion, a 24-year-old physical education senior, led all CIS defencemen this season with 39 points in 28 league games, good enough for seventh place in the CIS scoring race. Overall, he registered an 8-43-51 record in 45 contests, becoming the first rearguard in history to lead the Redmen in scoring. Perhaps his most impressive statistic however was that he was assessed only four penalty minutes during the regular season, a remarkable accomplishment for a blue-liner.

One of the most decorated hockey players in school history, Dorion was voted MVP of the OUA East Conference and earned CIS defenceman-of-the-year honours for the second time in three seasons. He achieved all-Canadian status for the third consecutive campaign, received the Bobby Bell Trophy as Team MVP and the D.S. Forbes Trophy as McGill's male athlete of the year.

He will graduate as McGill's all-time top-scoring rearguard with a 38-154-192 record in 174 games overall.

"Marc-André is an elite CIS defenceman who excels at both ends of the ice. He's also an outstanding student and a well-respected leader within our team," says McGill bench boss Kelly Nobes about his graduating alternate captain, who was honoured by the CIS last fall as one of the Top 8 Academic All-Canadians in the country, achieving a sessional grade point average of 3.78 out of 4.00 in physical education and health. He also made the Principal's Student-athlete Honour Roll

In 2009, he received the Prix d 'Excellence Guy Lafleur for his outstanding achievement in academics and hockey. Dorion, who helped Canada claim bronze at the 2011 world university winter games in Turkey, has had NHL tryouts with Phoenix (2011), Toronto (2010) and Dallas (2008).