For most athletes, the perfect dream season ends once they finally get their hands on the trophy at the end of the year. For Estevan's Tanner Froese, the raising of a Division III NCAA Championship is just the stepping stone he needed to begin his professional hockey career.

After the All American received the honour of the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, it attracted the attention of the Fort Wayne Komets of the ECHL. With three games left in the season and the team being one with a few injuries already, Froese is looking forward to breaking into the lineup for the end of the season and hopefully into the playoffs.

"When the coach called me, he said that they ran into a few injuries up front so he needed a guy to step in and you know, that's the goal right now," said an excited Froese, "...to step into the lineup, do what the coaches need me to do, and do whatever I can to contribute to this team."

"I'd like to be able to help out in terms of  moving forward through playoffs and keep doing what I've been doing all year."

The signing on the dotted line in the professional league has only been the opening to a new chapter of an already decorated story. To begin the year, the 25-year-old was given the honour of wearing the 'C' for his final year with the St. Norbert College, and he captained his team well by leading team in goals, assists, and points.

"That was just the start of my year. I knew I had a lot of expectations of myself being the captain. I just had to go out there and do what I do and everything seemed to work out the way you could only write it up."

"It was a complete honour to be captain and I just tried to do my best job."

Froese is already down in Fort Wayne, Indiana with the team and is starting to make the transition from collegiate hockey to the professional game, and it's come with a few bumps and bruises.

"It's a different game, there's definitely a lot more skill in this league, and I know I'm not the most skilled player so I got to work hard and make sure I'm in the right position."

Froese should see his first ECHL action in one of the last three games of the year that Fort Wayne will play this weekend, three straight days with games on all three, and the new jersey isn't the only new look that Froese will be wearing. Now that he's out of college hockey, he's back to wearing a visor instead of a cage.

"It's a lot to adjust to, even just going back to wearing a visor, and I've already taken a puck to the mouth in practice so it's something to watch out for."