Lovejoy explained how he ended up signing with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
"My agent talked to a lot of different teams and he gauged the level of interest around the league," Lovejoy said.
He begins training immediately.
"I fly to Pittsburgh tomorrow and attend a week-long conditioning camp, then I'm living in Boston for the summer," Lovejoy said on Sunday. "In September, the team goes to Toronto, where five [National Hockey League] teams have training camps."
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are the AHL affiliate of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, founded in 1999 and owned by its NHL affiliate, play at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
The team competes in the Eastern Conference of the AHL, and in the 2005-2006 season they won the East Division championship.
The AHL is a professional hockey league that serves as the primary development circuit for the NHL. All thirty teams in the NHL have affiliation agreements with one or more of the AHL's twenty-nine clubs.
Lovejoy, a native of Orford, N.H., transferred to Dartmouth after beginning his collegiate career in 2003 at Boston College, where he posted six assists in 22 games.
"I went to BC as an 18-year-old, but most [players] take a year or two and I just wasn't ready," Lovejoy said.
After transferring to Dartmouth, Lovejoy quickly became a major contributor to Dartmouth's defense. In his first year playing for the Big Green, he scored 13 points in 32 games.
In his junior year, Lovejoy led the Big Green defensive unit in scoring with 18. Lovejoy helped the Big Green's defense to rank fourth in the ECAHL in scoring and second in power plays en route to Dartmouth winning its first-ever ECAC regular season title.
"The highlight of playing at Dartmouth was definitely winning the ECAC championship in 2006, my junior year," Lovejoy said.
In his senior year Lovejoy was again Dartmouth's top scoring defensemen with 21 points. He was named second team All-Ivy and All-ECACHL third team as Dartmouth went on to split the Ivy League title, the first time the Big Green won at least a share of the Ancient Eight crown since 1980.
Lovejoy was also named a finalist for the Walter Brown Award, which is presented to the best American-born college hockey player in New England.
While at Dartmouth, Lovejoy also played on the Big Green's varsity lacrosse team as a long-stick midfielder.
"When it was hockey season and year round I was a hockey player," Lovejoy said. "When the season ended I would play lacrosse, but I never let it interfere with hockey. I played hockey three seasons and lacrosse one."
After having completed his Dartmouth career and graduating a term early, Lovejoy signed an amateur tryout contract with the Norfolk Admirals, another team in the AHL, on Thursday, March 22. Lovejoy played in five games with Norfolk.
"It was great," Lovejoy said. "It was exactly what I needed. I went down there for a month and played minor league hockey. It was similar to what people do in the real world. They get an internship. I was able to play in the AHL. I got to see how I liked it and they got to see how they liked me."
In the spring, Lovejoy had the opportunity to experience the quality of play in AHL and compare it to his three years of hockey at Dartmouth.
"I thought the speed of the game was similar but everything was crisper," Lovejoy said, "There was a lot less running around and a lot more concentrated movement. The quickness of everyone's decision making was much faster."
While playing for Dartmouth certainly has its advantages for a prospective professional hockey player, Lovejoy knows he may not yet be totally ready to handle all of the facets of playing at the next level.
"To be honest I don't know if playing at Dartmouth has prepared me to play for the Penguins," Lovejoy said. "I hope it prepared me by putting me in a competitive schedule and allowing me to play with good players the past four years."
