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The Florida Everblades almost hoped that Steve Saviano wouldn’t be back. He wasn’t protected and they didn’t make him a qualifying offer. And he won’t be back in the ECHL, or even on this continent this season.

Saviano signed with the Växjö Lakers of the Allsvenskan League in Sweden on Wednesday. Saviano scored 25 goals and added 45 assists in just 42 games for the Everblades last year. He was seeking a guarantee of a full season in the American Hockey League, but when that didn’t happen, he jumped at the chance to go overseas.

“I’m excited about it,” Saviano said. “I think it’ll be a good opportunity for me.”

European teams, whose seasons end earlier in the season than the ECHL’s, started contacting the Everblades and Saviano during the ECHL playoffs. “It was a compliment,” he said. “I had a good year down there in Florida.”

Saviano, who turns 25 at the end of August, had six goals and three assists in 25 games with the AHL’s Lowell Lock Monsters last year. He had more than proven himself at the ECHL level, registering 122 points in 100 games with the Everblades.

“He’s such a great kid,” Everblades team president and general manager Craig Brush said. “Part of our job is to see players develop and he had done everything that he could possibly do at the ECHL level. He needed an opportunity to play at a higher level.”

The loss of Saviano means the Blades will be without their top two scorers from last season. Top scorer Daniel Sisca signed with a team in Italy. Paul Cabana, the fifth-leading scorer, was not given a qualifying offer.

Daily News file photo

Steve Saviano of the Florida Everblades chases down the puck during the first period of the Blades game against the Columbia Inferno at Germain Arena on March 10, 2006.

“We’re talking to a lot of players right now,” said Brush, who became a grandfather when granddaughter Anna was born on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of players out there. You never know until the season starts which ones are going to work out and which ones don’t.”

The Blades will have some firepower coming back.

Kevin Bergin, who had 29 goals and 33 assists in 62 games, would be the leading returning scorer. Bergin was given a qualifying offer. Ernie Hartlieb, the No. 4 scorer with 54 points in 55 games, already has re-signed. Phil Aucoin, who had 43 points in 65 games, accepted the team’s qualifying offer on Wednesday, and Chris Lee, who had 37 points in 52 games, was extended a qualifying offer.

Saviano, a 5-foot-8, 180-pounder, will be one of two “imports” on the Växjö roster. Allsvenskan is the second-tier league in Sweden, below the Elite League. Saviano, who has never been overseas, said he would be more comfortable going to a strong second-tier team than a weaker team in the Elite League.

Steve Saviano

“I don’t want to jump into something too big,” Saviano said.

Saviano talked with former Everblade Brent McDonald, who played with Boras HC of the Division I League in Sweden last year.

“He said I really can’t go wrong,” Saviano said. “It was good to hear that.”

That will ease the fact that he will be leaving the Everblades, probably for good.

“I absolutely love it down there,” he said. “It’s like a second home to me. I’ll always be a Blade, I feel like. But I have to move on with my career if I want to make it a career.”

And it’s entirely possible Saviano can make it by going overseas. All-Star defenseman Brian Rafalski, who played four seasons in Sweden and Finland before coming to the NHL, where he’s become a fixture for the New Jersey Devils.

“Hopefully, I’ll do well,” Saviano said. “I’m planning on doing well, they’re expecting me to do well, and I’m expecting to do well.”

-- SCHEDULE TO BE RELEASED: The ECHL announced it will release its 2006-07 schedule at 4 p.m. on Monday on the league Web site: www.echl.com.