Cardiff Devils will open the 2025/26 Elite Ice Hockey League pre-season this Saturday evening when they welcome France’s Rapaces de Gap to the Vindico Arena.
The Devils have been in camp all week and will be the first EIHL team to begin warm-up games ahead of the new campaign. Belfast Giants, Glasgow Clan, and Nottingham Panthers will all join the action next weekend, each also facing overseas opposition.
Cardiff face Gap twice this weekend with a game each on Saturday and Sunday.
Head Coach Paul Thompson, who will be behind the Devils’ bench for the first time since joining in the off-season, said ahead of the weekend’s games:
“We’ll be looking to create some chemistry with the new lines and the new players coming in. It’s early days, Gap will be a couple of weeks ahead of us in terms of their preparation and conditioning and at this time of year that makes quite a difference.
I’m looking for chemistry, and then after the weekend we’ll break the games down for our players and move on from there with what we want to do as a team.”
Gap narrowly avoided relegation from France’s top tier after finishing last in both the regular season and the play-out round. No team from the division below met the necessary requirements to compete in Ligue Magnus, meaning Gap retained their place in the league.
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