The 24-year-old, winger joins the club from Slovakian side, HK Nitra, where last season he scored 22 points (11G, 11A) in 37 games and won the Continental Cup.
Born in Calgary, Alberta, Elmer was signed by the NHL’s New York Rangers as a free agent in 2019 and would pen a three-year entry-level contract with the Blueshirts, whilst also being appointed as an alternate captain for the 2019-2020 preseason.
Standing at 6-feet-1-inch tall and weighing in at 183lbs, Jake has played four seasons of professional hockey in North America, icing for the Rangers affiliate clubs in both the American Hockey League (AHL) and ECHL.
The right winger also iced in the Western Hockey League (WHL) for three different clubs across five seasons as he racked up 134 points (64G, 70A) across 204 appearances, in one of Canada’s best junior leagues, before turning professional with New York’s AHL team, Hartford Wolf Pack.
After competing in well over 100 ECHL games, Elmer has also been chosen to play in the ECHL All-Star Game and was selected during his first season in the league after he put up 23 points in 36 matches with Maine Mariners, whilst also winning the Player of the Week award on one occasion that year.
LEFEBVRE ON ELMER
After touching down in Dundee, Stars Director of Hockey Operations and Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre, revealed his final signing and after completing his line-up for the 2023-2024 season, he said: “I am very delighted to have Jake joining us because he brings a lot of offensive capabilities to the table and he is going to help our powerplay quite a bit.
“He also has some experience in the American league, the coast and he played in Europe last season, so we are excited to have him.”
Elmer had originally signed with Danish outfit, Odense Bulldogs for this coming season but would become available again in recent weeks, allowing LeFebvre to act swiftly and bring him to Dundee.
Marc added: “Jake became available in the last week and his representatives reached out to us, as they knew we were looking for a final forward and things came together pretty quickly, and we are delighted to have him.”
The Canadian Coach also shared his thoughts on how his recruitment plans went after finalising his final signing of the summer, commenting: “It is never easy but we stuck to the blueprint of what we wanted.
“We wanted strong veteran goaltending and we got that, we wanted a big defensive-core and we got that, and we wanted depth upfront with offensive capabilities and some physicality throughout the line-up.
“Everything got marked off that we wanted and I am looking forward to getting these guys on the ice.”
Listen to the full interview below!
ELMER ON BECOMING A STAR
Hear what Jake had to say about joining the Stars as he caught up with Stephen Swann from Dundee Stars TV.
ELMER’S CAREER
Jake’s career began back in 2011, when he was part of NWCAA Bruins U15 squad, who competed in the Hockey Calgary U15 AA league and he scored a total of 29 points in 30 games, before then continuing his development with Edge Prep School.
Joining their U15 side ahead of the 2012-2013 campaign, his only appearances for the school that year would be in two games with the U18’s team, but he would also dress with Team Calgary North in the Alberta Cup, scoring four goals in five matches.
The following year, Jake played a total of 79 games for Edge School’s Elite 15’s team and Maroon U18’s AA side, where he accumulated 54 goals and 52 assists.
In the 2014-2015 season, Elmer continued to move up through the ranks at Edge and split his time between the U18 team and main team, who competed in the Midwest Prep Hockey League.
The winger would score 47 points that year from 40 matches before earning the chance to try his hand in the junior and major junior leagues at the end of the year.
Firstly, he trialled with major side, Regina Pats of the WHL, where he dressed in three fixtures and then on two occasions, he laced up for Grande Prairie Storm in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
Elmer then joined the Pats and Storm again for the 2015-2016 campaign, splitting his time between the two but the following year, he would be acquired by another WHL team, as the Kootenay Ice traded for the then 17-year-old and had him split his time between the Ice and Grand Prairie for another year.
After making 46 appearances for Kootenay, the Lethbridge Hurricanes then came calling and traded for Jake ahead of the 2017-2018 season, which led to the winger going on to play 161 times for the Hurricanes, over the next two seasons.
In his final year of junior hockey, Jake recorded 81 regular season points (39G, 42A) for Lethbridge, before adding six more in seven playoff contests and he was also the recipient of three team awards that year, taking home the Three Stars Award, Fan Favorite Award and Community Relations Award.
It was then in the summer of 2019 that Elmer signed with New York as a free agent after making five appearances with their AHL farm team, Hartford at the end of the previous season and he tallied two goals and two assists in his brief spell.
The Calgary native then spent the majority of the 2019-2020 season with Maine Mariners, the Rangers ECHL-partner club, whilst also turning out twice for the Wolf Pack and when the Rangers changed their ECHL affiliation to Jacksonville Icemen in 2020, Jake would then be assigned to the Florida-based club for the 2020-2021 campaign.
In the final year of his three-year-deal with New York, Elmer played 10 more times for Hartford and then returned to Jacksonville for the majority of the season, scoring 32 points in 52 games.
Then last season, Elmer originally signed with Greenville Swamp Rabbits, a former affiliate team of the Rangers, where he iced in six games and assisted on two goals before deciding to pursue a move to Europe, as he joined the future Continental Cup winning side, HK Nitra.
In his 12-year-career so far, Jake has featured in 569 matches, recorded 218 goals, 202 assists and collected 392 penalty minutes, while also playing in 42 playoff games, where he tallied 32 points (11G, 21A) and 43 penalty minutes.
Elmer has also been on the same team as a few ex-Stars over the years, including; Colton Kroeker, Brian Hart, Matt Marquardt and Joey Sides.
Jake is our 20th signing of the summer and joins Drydn Dow, Lucas Brine, Kris Inglis, Jonathan McBean, Craig Moore, Craig Garrigan, Johnny Walker, Josh Brittain, Chris McKay, Ryan Valentini, Brendan Harms, Carter Johnson, Tommy Parrottino, James Phelan, Kevin Carr, Anthony Rinaldi, Spencer Naas, Sean Allen and Kyle Pouncy on the roster for next season.
Elmer will wear #98 for the Stars and you can sponsor his equipment for this season right now, click HERE.
To see Jake’s career stats on Elite Prospects click HERE.
Banner Image: Maine Mariners.
Featured Image: Metal Ligaen.
