EPL Roundup – All’s well that ends well

SWINDON , UK –  Ah! I do like a happy ending, and this week was especially nice because we were treated to a double dollop of ahhh-ness.
 
First off, the Steeldogs continued their magnificent charge towards the season’s starting line with another nine signings taking the roster to twenty, just one below their stated target.
 
Ex-Spartan forward Mark Turner, who joined the Scimitars last season, was first off the blocks becoming twelfth on the roster. D-man Aaron Strawson soon followed, a Jon Rowbotham Scimitars signing. Forward Nicky Lewis joined from ENL Invicta were he scored an impressive 71 points in 38 games last season, and a day later forward Shaun Ashton signed on from ENL Spartans where he achieved a point per game.
 
More Rowbotham Scimitars signings followed with Lewis Bell joining the blueline and Tom Squires up front, but perhaps the most significant was Canadian forward Peter Vaisanen who rejoined as import number two. Also of interest was the re-signing of a third netminder, Paul Jones, fully recovered from six months off the ice following a hip operation. Coach Matt Darlow said Jones had a training schedule in place which by the time the season starts should enable him to compete for the number one goalie position on equal terms with Ben Bowns and Dimitri Zimozdra, so no designated starting netminder.
 
What a hive of activity, and against the backdrop of the musical chairs being played at neighbours Sheffield Steelers which may still have a knock-on effect at some point in the future. So what could possibly be the first dollop of niceness? The fact all eight Rowbotham signings are on the Steeldogs’ roster, which was probably on the cards from the start, but you can’t beat a sprinkling of suspense to enhance a warm ahhh! feeling.
 
A flurry of activity at the Wildcats saw one of last years imports, Russian forward Raimonds Danilics, sign for Montpellier, France, and news that the future of remaining imports Canadian forward Jason Cassells, who joined part way through the season from the Phantoms, and Slovakian forward Jozef Kohut was ‘undecided’. Kohut, however, was rumoured to be re-signing in a week’s time which just leaves British D-man Andy Finn on the Wildcats’ undecided list.   What wasn’t undecided was the signing of ex-GB Under18 D-man Nick Compton from the Phantoms who had previously progressed through the Swindon junior system and followed up with some US experience.
 
Elsewhere and the Lightning announced the re-signing of GB Under18 D-man Ross Green of whom Coach Nick Poole said, “I believe he will be one of the best British defenders in the UK in a few years”.
 
British forward Stuart Potts re-joined the Flames for the seventh consecutive season, and following the Bison announcement two weeks ago of a completed line-up, British netminder Dean Skinns signed on as number two to Tom Annetts which makes you wonder what happened to Davey Lawrence who ended the season as a netminder’s top ten on save rate, about 2% above Skinns.
 
Coach Gareth Cox at the Bees, in another unusual step in the wake of the open sessions in Telford, announced his team was to train with the Bracknell junior sides “There’s a couple of guys we’re going to have a look at” he explained “but if nothing happens I have no doubts about the current squad”. By the end of the week there was no more news from that quarter, but at the Tigers Coach Watkins signed his final import Canadian Chris Allen on a two-year contract to his blueline. Allen is something of a coup having played in the NHL, Europe, the UK Elite League and ending last season in the US.
 
At the Phantoms all-time record points scorer Brent Gough hung up his skates and climbed over the boards to become assistant coach at the Westside Warriors in British Columbia, Canada after twenty-two years on the ice, the last four in Peterborough. But not too many tears because Coach Curtis Cruickshank said, “Our jigsaw is almost finished for the coming season. I am truly happy with what we have in place so far”. And no wonder with the re-signing of top British defender James Morgan who last season amassed a whopping 58 points as well as a top ten place for assists. Morgan was also the third top D-man points scorer and second top British D-man points scorer of the season, while his 183 penalty minutes gave him a fifth place overall and third in the British PiM chart.
 
But more importantly for ending the week on a high note, Morgan was the last British player to finish the season with a placing in any of the top ten charts without a home to go to until now. That makes that the second dollop of good news for the week and for some unaccountable reason conjures up the thought that the EPL is this weekend a bit like what my old grand-pappy used to say when all the cows were bedded down safely for the night: “A barber’s chair that fits all buttocks”. Nope, I don’t know what he was on about either.
 
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Contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com