SWINDON, UK – The EPL rebuilding continues apace as a few clubs making the running with the Bison ahead of the Phantoms by a nose and the Steeldogs, Bees and Wildcats close behind followed by the Tigers and Lightning. The Phoenix and Jets appear to be playing a waiting game while the Flames are off the mark, just, but making up for it with a glut of rumours.
Not a rumour, however, was the departure from Guildford of British forward Matt Towe now en-route to the EIHL Belfast Giants.
Now jumping back over the fence into the Flames’ rumour mire we find Greg Owen. Owen is a top-rated Brit who entered the sport in 1998 and the EPL four years later with the Lightning. He saw international service along the way and first joined the Bison in 2005 when they were in the Elite league and where he stayed for three seasons. Lately it was EIHL’s Coventry Blaze that acquired his services until now, that is, when at the age of 30 he chose to move to the EPL.
Rumour had it Guildford was his destination of choice, but then up he pops in Basingstoke. OK, so rumours being what they are and by definition are NOT reality despite what some people seem to believe otherwise we would call them facts, but there was the further rumour – so again it may not be true – that Owen had actually signed for the Guildford side but almost immediately quit.
This raises two interesting points: Sadly, if true, it again highlights the lack of substance in an EPL player-club contract, although the Flames had better luck with Curtis Huppe when the Canadian forward re-signed for a second year after missing a third of the last campaign through injury.
But the second point raised by the emerging Bison roster was, with the other signings new Bison coach Doug Sheppard has secured, his side is beginning to look a bit tasty. I give you, also, Stevie Lyle.
Yet another top Brit, Lyle at 32 has had a long but impressive career. In 1994 he joined his home town side the Cardiff Devils as a netminder and that is where he played almost continuously until 2003. Then he began to roam but finished up back in Cardiff in the Elite League until now with a pretty darn good save rate. Over his last ten years he has averaged over 90% with goals-against average over the same period rarely more than 2. So, sit up and take notice EPL.
But Sheppard’s first signing was D-man Kurt Reynolds who returned for a fifth season, and days later he added Joe Miller for a second and D-man Tony Redmond for an eleventh, while Ollie Bronnimann and Sam Oakford both departed.
Another interesting name added to the roster was Joe Greener who ended last season as a top EPL goal scorer and the league’s leading assist scorer. He will undoubtedly be missed by the Jets from whence he came and where he gave three seasons’ service.
However, coming in the Slough front door is Slava Koulikov after a year in Manchester only this time he returns as player-coach, replacing Sheppard and temporary ‘brokers’ Adam Greener and Craig Moran. Koulikov, who was in the midst of the take-over battle for control of the EIHL Stingrays for whom he played for seven seasons said, ‘I had an offer accepted and I felt I was in pole position, but it is best for me not to continue.’
Also not continuing, at least for the Jets, are D-men Zach Sullivan and Alex Symonds who, despite having been offered terms, went on their merry way.
Over in Bracknell the Bees announced the return of Coach Gareth Cox for a third season and who, despite a lot of speculation, it was apparently always considered would retain the hot seat. Cox said, ‘There won’t be any major changes because we don’t believe they need to be made. We knew the squad only needed a bit of tweaking, but there are some difficult decisions that have to be made, though.’
One of those decisions may have involved Brad Watchorn who left for the Invicta Dynamos in the ENL. But not so difficult for Cox must have been the re-signing of Czech forward Lukas Smital as an assistant coach because it was almost immediate. So too was Shaun Thompson’s recall for a fifth time and who only a few weeks ago was voted the Bees’ Supporters’ Player of the Year. Also returning to Bracknell was D-man Sam Oakford who left the Bison days earlier.
Also receiving a re-call, but to the Lightning’s standard, was forward Adam Carr who returns as captain and for which he will receive a big gooey cake with ten candles and a testimonial match as a present. Being his tenth season at the club it should, as everyone knows, be recalled as the ‘aluminium’ anniversary which brings to mind the short flirt with sticks of that material in the late eighties. But ten years is a long time for a player to remain at one club, so a notable achievement.
Someone else who didn’t find it difficult to re-sign for Milton Keynes was Slovenian forward Blaz Emersic who said, ‘I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself in Milton Keynes.’ That can only mean, at least in part, he must have a better developed orthography than some of the natives who according to a survey complained one of the worst things about living there was getting the spelling right.
One person who did get it right, although without any great surprise, was Wildcats’ coach Ryan Aldridge who acquired the signature of the EPL’s top scorer by game average Aaron Nell. The British forward was one of only two players who broke the 2-points-per-game average last season, the other being the Flames’ Jozef Kohut.
Also getting things together is Coach Tom Watkins in Telford who announced the return of 18-year-old Stuart Brittle of whom he said, ‘He is maturing all the time and is a good player to start building the team around.’ Added to that came the re-signing of D-man Daniel Croft, and forward Adam Taylor who played 18 times for the Tigers last season plus games for the ENL Titans and GBU18 Trojans.
Meanwhile Phantoms’ new coach Jon Kynaston continued where he left off last week with the signing from the Elite League of D-man James Hutchinson who first iced for the Phantoms back in 2000 while a GBU18 player. Hutchinson returned to Peterborough in 2006 for three years and now comes back to roost for a third time.
Kynaston said, ‘There might be a few new faces on the team next season, but I don’t see a need to overhaul the team too drastically.’’ Oddly, though, ex-coach Chris Allen, who was the top scoring D-man in the EPL last season and had been quite clear about his loyalty to the Phantoms said, ‘I have not heard anything from the club about next season, so I have told them to take me out of their plans.’
And finally, in Sheffield the Steeldogs made a night of it with four announcements. Forward Greg Wood returned as captain, and both Steve Duncombe and Ben Morgan rejoined the blue line.
But the biggie, as was expected, feared or welcomed depending who you support, was the news that the EPL’s top netminder Ben Bowns had packed his saddlebags and was astride his pony trotting northbound into the aurora borealis, or in this case Glasgow, to join the ELIH Braehead Clan. Oh dear, and so young. That is such a long way from home so I do hope he has packed enough sandwiches and a change of clothes. But who can blame him? With a superb season and virtual 93% save-rate behind him he has got his wish and becomes their starting netminder.
So with plenty of personnel movement to keep things ticking over as teams try to tie down players early for the coming season, we end another week with the promise of plenty more to come. Can’t wait!
For more EPL facts and figures, stats news and more take a look at www.iceman-epl.com
Contact Bill.Collins@prohockeynews.com
For more EPL facts and figures, stats news and more take a look at www.iceman-epl.com
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