Wideman becomes 15th former RoughRider to make it to NHL

Chris Wideman became the 15th former Cedar Rapids RoughRiders player to make it to the National Hockey League when he played for the Ottawa Senators last Saturday night against Nashville.

A 25-year-old defenseman, Wideman was called up from the minor leagues by Ottawa last season but never appeared in a game. He had 19 goals and 42 points in 75 games for Binghamton of the American Hockey League in 2014-15.

Wideman played for the RoughRiders in the 2007-08 season, becoming the third player from that team to play in the NHL. The others are defenseman Matt Donovan and forward Casey Wellman.

Donovan is in the AHL right now with the Rochester American, Wellman is playing for Moscow Spartak in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League.

Other RoughRiders graduates that are in the NHL are goalies Alex Stalock (San Jose Sharks) and Richard Bachman (Vancouver Canucks), forwards Teddy Purcell (Edmonton Oilers), Justin Abdelkader (Detroit Red Wings) and Tommy Wingels (San Jose Sharks), as well as defensemen Matt Tennyson (San Jose Sharks) and Alec Martinez (Los Angeles Kings).

The other former Riders to play in NHL games include forwards Andy Miele (now with AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins) and Jayson Megna (AHL's Hartford Wolfpack) and goalie Troy Grosenick (AHL's San Jose Barracuda). Forward David Moss and defenseman Derek Peltier also played in the NHL but are out of professional hockey.

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