By: Heidi Hafker and Drew Palmer

Did you know that your 2011-2012 Worcester Sharks Team weighs in at over 2 Tons? That’s the same weight as a full grown Great White Shark!!

With only 5 days left before Opening Night against Albany, it’s time to get to know a little about your Worcester Sharks. Listed below are interesting facts and stats about this year’s Worcester Sharks team roster.

The average team member this year is 23 ½ years old, weighs in at 211lbs and stands in at 6’1”. Youngster Taylor Doherty towers over his teammates at a whopping 6’7”, almost a foot taller than teammate Matt Connolly.

Tough guys Matt Pelech and Jimmy Bonneau had a combined 378 PIMs during the 2010-2011 season and 117 fights during their AHL careers. Goalies Tyson Sexsmith and rookie Thomas Heemskerk both had a GAA of 2.94 in the 2010-2011 season in their respective leagues.

Worcester’s roster welcomes 10 new faces to the team this season and has 13 returning players. This year’s roster hosts players from the United States, Canada and Slovakia with the majority reigning from Canada. This season’s team brings experience from junior hockey, US college hockey and the NHL. Overall the team members have played a total of 324 games in the NHL.

Head Coach Roy Sommer and Assistant David Cunniff have a combined 33 years of coaching experience and Sommer is currently the longest tenured coach in the AHL, and is only the fourth head coach to reach 1,000 games.

Feel free to dive deeper into this year’s team’s roster to uncover more exciting information. Are any players from your hometown? Were you a fan of any player before they became a Shark? Get excited for the season to be in full action and come out to a Worcester Sharks game to see what the hype is all about!!