ROB HELLYER SIGNS 3-YEAR EXTENSION
Rock Superstar Agrees To New Deal Following MVP Nomination
Oakville, ON – Toronto Rock General Manager Jamie Dawick certainly isn’t on summer holidays. After making two blockbuster trades to shore up the Rock’s defensive corps earlier in the week, it was announced today that star forward Rob Hellyer has agreed to terms on a new 3-year contract extension that runs through the 2022-23 season.
The signing is pending league approval.
“My hope is that Robbie can finish his career in Toronto, I think that’s something we both want to have happen” said Dawick. “He’s been a part of this team since my second season of ownership and if the current CBA was clearer, this would be a longer agreement. We’re both committed to each other for the long haul.”
The 28-year old Hellyer made his NLL debut on March 4, 2011 at just 18-years old and won a championship later that season, the most recent title for the Rock. He’s now played 9 seasons in the NLL (he missed the entire 2017 season recovering from a torn ACL) and every one of the them has been in Toronto.
“This was an easy decision, I’m extremely excited and there’s nowhere else I want to play,” said Hellyer. “Coming into the league at 18 and winning, I thought it was easy, and I thought it would be like that every year, but we’ve only been back to the finals once since then. You take it for granted when you’re there and then you realize how hard it is to get there as the years go by. I thought we had a great shot to win this year before the season was cancelled. With the moves we made in the last week, I think we have an even better shot. We have a great group of guys, a great coaching staff and Rosey in the net, we have all the pieces. I think we have a great shot at a championship in the near future.”
In 110 career games, Hellyer has scored 212 goals, added 329 assists for 541 points. His career point total ranks him 5th all-time in Rock history behind Colin Doyle, Blaine Manning, Josh Sanderson and Stephan Leblanc. His 113 points (18-game season) in 2016 still stands as the second highest single-season Rock total behind the 114 put up by Garrett Billings in 2012 (16-game season).
Those career numbers would have shot even higher had the 19-20 season not been cut short. The Lion’s Head, ON native was on pace for a career and Rock franchise best 52 goals. He was also on pace for his fourth 90-plus point season. One could say, it was an MVP-like season for the Rock veteran.
“Robbie was our MVP last year and he’s a huge piece of the puzzle,” explained Dawick. “As Robbie goes, we go. Especially last year with everything we went through from an injury standpoint. He regained his MVP form without a doubt and Robbie is such an integral part of any success we have as a team.”
Most NLL league awards voters also thought that Hellyer had done enough this season to warrant MVP consideration. With the injuries to Adam Jones and Tom Schreiber, Hellyer was counted on for a long stretch of the season to carry the load offensively for his club, and he did just that by scoring 32 goals, the second most during the 19-20 NLL season. Both Shayne Jackson (Georgia) and Callum Crawford (New England) finished ahead of Hellyer when the final MVP votes were tallied, but his accomplishments over the 11-game Rock regular season didn’t go unnoticed by league voters. For his efforts, Hellyer was named to the NLL’s All-Pro second team.
Stay tuned to the Rock’s social media channels and torontorock.com as more signings are announced throughout the summer months.
The next major date on the NLL’s summer calendar is the opening of the free agent signing period on Aug. 1.
2020-21 Toronto Rock Season Memberships are on sale now! For more information or to purchase, please visit torontorock.com.
