BRAEHEAD CLAN'S summer rebuilding continues apace as they announced the signing of Canadian defenceman Kyle Wharton today.

The 30-year-old is head coach Ryan Finnerty's third defensive arrival of the summer and brings experience from spells in North America, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Denmark and Japan.

Wharton, who will wear the number 72 jersey next season, is a 6ft 2in left-handed defenceman who represented Japanese club Nikko Icebucks last season.

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The 30-year-old's arrival has pleased Finnerty, who is confident that his all-round ability will add value to the squad.Glasgow Times:

“Kyle is a solid player,” he said. “Whether you notice him or not, we don’t have one dimensional offensive defenceman. We have guys that are solid in all three zones.

“With a ton of offence, what we have in Kyle is a good puck moving D-man with good speed, good transition and what we’re looking for.

“He’s an incredible skater, with great speed, high skill, can play in any situation and brings great size at six foot three inches and will be expected to play big minutes and a key role for us. 

“We had looked at him for a while and talked to him quite a lot over the course of the summer so it’s great to get the deal tied up.

“It’s tough to measure one set of defenceman against others from time here, but you’re missing Jamie Fritsch and Nathan MacIver - the sort of guys that you can’t replace like-for-like.

“As good as they were on the ice, there were great guys off it and we just need to find the pieces to put the team together again.

“We’re confident guys like Kyle will come in and fill the role, but the players we lost are not easy to replace.  However the new guys will provide something different and will be as valuable.”