Simcoe’s Ryan Horvat has relished the opportunity to play another year of pro hockey.

The 23-year-old who spent the last two seasons with the Ontario Reign/Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League was strongly thinking about enrolling at a Canadian university after Christmas until a fellow Norfolk native gave him a call this fall.

On the line was Delhi’s Geordie Kinnear, named back in June as head coach of the Florida Panthers’ AHL affiliate in Springfield.

“He asked, ‘Have you been skating?’ and ‘Are you ready to go?’” Horvat recalled. “I said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to NHL camp this year’. He said, ‘Hang tight’. Next thing I know I get a call from my agent and I’m heading down to Florida.”

“It was a 48-hour turnaround so it was awesome.”

Horvat spent the next few days with the Panthers before being assigned to Springfield for camp with the relocated Thunderbirds.

“It’s been great so far, they treat us really well,” Horvat said of his time with the Panthers organization.

“You don’t see that separation from the guys that have been in the NHL for so many years and the guys that are trying to make their way into the AHL. It’s a close group…Everyone feels welcomed.”

Horvat has long been a coach at Tri-County Pros Hockey School, a youth summer camp run by Kinnear and fellow Delhi native/former NHLer Ryan VandenBussche.

A Holy Trinity alum, Horvat has enjoyed being able to further learn from Kinnear, 43.

“He’s been great the past couple weeks – he wants guys to work hard, he expects guys to come in and put your work boots on,” said Horvat, who registered 26 points (eight goals, 18 assists) to go along with 180 penalty minutes in his first two AHL seasons.

“From coaching with him and now playing for him you can see the stuff he does in the summer translates over to how he’s going to run this team.”

With the regular season opening this weekend, Kinnear and his staff are expected to make their final roster decisions in the coming days. Should Horvat – known as a gritty forward – be offered a deal, the former member of the Guelph Storm wants to bring a measure of offence and leadership to the roster.

“They want me to produce a little bit more – in my exit meeting (with the Panthers) they kind of said, ‘We want you to make more plays’ and things like that which is nice, rather than just chipping pucks and crashing and banging,” he explained. “We have a young squad so taking on a leadership role here is what I’m going to put on myself and what they expect from me here.”