Mason City forward Ulve signs NAHL tender

The Mason City Toros of the NA3HL are pleased to announce that forward Blake Ulve has signed a North American Hockey League (NAHL) tender agreement with the North Iowa Bulls of the NAHL’s Central Division for the 2022-23 season.

Ulve, 19, becomes the second member of this past season’s Toros’ team to earn a NAHL tender. He joins fellow forward Carter Newpower, who signed a tender with the Bulls in December.

“I’m excited to be back in Mason City next season,” Ulve said. “I really enjoyed being part of this team this year after a late start getting into games.”

The Albert Lea, Minn. native missed the first 38 games of the regular season but returned to play in each of the final 10 games of the regular season and all five postseason games. Ulve scored a combined seven goals and 11 assists in 15 games. He joined the Toros as a second-line center but worked his way up to the top line for the final three weeks. From Feb. 12 to March 11 Ulve recorded at least one point in nine consecutive games and 17 points all-in-all.

In three seasons for Albert Lea High School Ulve scored 51 goals and added 58 assists over 69 games. He scored four goals and added three assists in eight games with the Austin Bruins 18U AAA program in 2020-21.

Toros head coach and Bulls assistant coach Nick Bruneteau is glad to keep Ulve with the organization after a strong season.

“He was one of the guys I was most excited about before the start of the season,” Bruneteau said. “Blake did a great job of being part of the team while injured and worked hard to make it back for the playoff push. I’m eager to see how he continues to improve next season.”

Click here to see a list of NA3HL tenders for the 2021-22 season

A tender is a contract, of sorts, a player signs announcing his intentions to play for that particular NAHL team and that NAHL team only. Once a player signs a tender with an NAHL team, his playing rights belong to that team within the NAHL and he may not be recruited by any other NAHL team. Each team is granted ten (10) tenders, which include two (2) tenders exclusively used on players from the NA3HL - plus or minus any trades - which became active on November 1st. Tendered players are not eligible for the 2022 NAHL Draft.