EPL Roundup – figuring out the final few

SWINDON UK, – Almost a normal week by recent standards with no big surprises.
 
The Steeldogs were the first with news this week when it was announced British defenceman Chris Wilcox, who had previously iced with the Scimitars in his EPL debut last season, had signed on. Also on board came Latvian forward and former Sheffield junior Edgar Bebris from Belarus as import number three. This was shortly followed by the announcement that forward Oli Barron, who had only joined the club in July, was leaving due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. Barron signed for the ENL Sheffield Spartans two days later.  
 
The Lightning, in a unique move this season, signed Jacob Heron from their junior programme. Coach Nick Poole said, cautiously, the young D-man would be used to cover injuries and suspensions to start with. Not so cautiously or surprisingly Andre Smulter re-signed for the Milton Keynes team. The Finnish forward was the Lightning’s second highest points scorer, behind Monir Kalgoum, on almost two points per game.
 
Nothing further from the Phoenix this week following the off/on Stingrays situation which had resulted in James Archer re-joining the EPL. Archer said, ‘I made a commitment to Tony (Coach Tony Hand) and the club and Manchester is where I’ll be playing next season.’ So, that’s that. More to the point, the Phoenix added to their import total with the signing of Swedish right wing Marcus Kristoffersson, a big lad at 6’2” and 14 stone. Although coming from a Swedish lower league, Kristoffersson is widely experienced in the top league in his home country and Finland, as well as more recently having played in Italy. He was also once drafted by Dallas into the NHL but did not play and instead iced over a hundred times in the AHL. Coach Hand called him a ‘defensive-minded forward.’
 
Coach Gareth Cox at the Bees signed ‘utility’ player Richard Facey, who is happy as both a forward and on the blue line, as a result of his attending the Bracknell informal training sessions. Cox said of the British forward, ‘Last year he led his team in goals and hits so I expect him to be a physical presence and give us something different.’ Facey, recently from three seasons in Canada said, ‘I’m a physical player and a fairly big boy, I like to hit, play the pass and play the puck. I just want to make a contribution.’
 
Wildcats signed backup netminder James Hadfield who played seven games with the Scimitars last season. Coach Ryan Aldridge said it had been a while since the Wildcats were in the position of having a second netminder capable of challenging for the opening slot, and that Hadfield looked like being that sort of goalie. Aldridge also said, ‘Our line up is about done and I like the way the team is looking.’ That makes the Wildcats the third team to declare completion, the others being the Bison and the Phantoms.
 
So with three teams declared complete, what’s left? Well, if you take it that two of the completed rosters have 17 players then on that basis only the Flames (16) and Phoenix (15) are apparently still short. Of course there is a lot more to it than just numbers but sticking with that for a minute then you have a couple of interesting things. Of the ‘incomplete’ rosters the Flames have five imports but not one on defence, but do have a foreign netminder while the Phoenix still have an import place to fill, as does the Steeldogs.
 
Elsewhere, while most teams appear to favour the more common import formulae of 3-forwards and   1-defender, the Bison have chosen to go with 2 defenders and 2 forwards, and the Jets have chosen 1 defender and 4 forwards, which will be 1 and 3 on the night.
 
The Steeldogs currently have the biggest roster with twenty-one and are the only club to list three netminders, while the Phoenix has the fewest at fifteen, so clearly a little further to go as well as the remaining import slot to fill.
 
Over all this means there are about five EPL places left to fill in the coming few weeks, two of which could be imports, which brought to mind something my old grand-pappy used to say about numbers: ‘The wolf never works out the size of the cows or counts how many in the herd he’s about to scatter if he’s hungry enough.’ And although usually being totally bewildered by such wisdom, I do know that by this time next week the first pre-season friendly games will be over and the analysing begun.
 
For more EPL facts, articles, figures and news try my website – www.iceman-epl.com
Contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com