SWINDON, UK – Kick-off this week came when the news the Bees had signed forward Nicky Watt for a second season. Watt can be an exciting player and the fact he finished in the top ten British players’ penalty, points, goals and assists charts is testament to that. Watt said he hoped one day to play again with his brother Ryan, who recently signed for the Wildcats, preferably in an EIHL team. He added that although he had spoken to other clubs he was only ever going to return to the Bees where he felt playing alongside the already-returning pair of Czech forwards Jaroslav Cesky and Michal Pinc had helped improve his game. Also returning to the side from a spell with ENL Bracknell Hornets is British forward James Galazzi who last year clocked up an average of nearly 1.5 points per game.
Bees coach Gareth Cox had said he would be making a special announcement about a new signing at the forthcoming Supporters Club AGM and, true to his word, he disclosed the signing of Slovakian forward Peter Jasic who now resides with his family near Bracknell, and scored over fifty points with the Slough Jets last season.
While the Jets may have let Jasic go, two veterans re-signed. Top scoring British D-man Paddy Ward put pen to paper for the sixth time at the Hanger having completed almost 300 games for the club so was easily able to discard interest from both EIHL and other EPL teams. Similarly, British forward Michael Bowman returned also for a sixth year and will also take up a newly created position as assistant coach to Pete Russell.
We all know now Romford Raiders have joined the ENL, but there are still some former EPL players there looking for homes. Matt Turner is one of those, and the British forward signed for ENL Chelmsford Chieftains.
Steve Duncombe, a GB junior international left the Scimitars and returned to the Phantoms for a second term where he played previously in the 2002/03 campaign. Good news for Scimitars, though, as forward Tom Squires, victim of a shoulder injury towards the end of last year which cost him a few weeks of his first season with the club, re-signed, hopefully with a clean bill of health.
And talking of injuries, netminder Paul Jones is another Scimitars player who fell victim to a damaging hip injury last September and had to pull out of the remainder of the season. But, earlier this year he underwent some serious surgery and has been slowly getting back into training, and has re-signed, so things are looking good for him.
Head coach Jon Rowbotham, commenting on the signing of his third netminder said, “I am running with three goalies again in training and I want to see which player is hungriest for the top spot.”
Another re-signee following injury is forward Steve Wallace who joined the Phoenix halfway through last season and despite being plagued by injury troubles, still managed to tick along nicely with an average of a point per game. GB international James Neil re-signed for the Manchester club, but as a defenseman! While both player and Coach Tony Hand accept the blue-line is not where his natural inclination lies, it was felt he might be suited to the roll of an attacking D-man for his second year.
Hand is also sticking to his policy of sorting out his British players before looking further afield, so perhaps a Canadian in Scotland still fits that bill. Rumour has it Adam Calder, the Canadian forward who became the top EIHL points scorer of all time and recently player-coach with the Elite League Braehead Clan for a few weeks, will be going to either the Phoenix or Lightning. Makes a certain sense after he said the set up at the Glasgow club wasn’t quite what he expected.
Bison’s Chris Wiggins may not be a high-scoring forward with just eighteen points for the year, but at six-feet five (198cms) and a no-nonsense approach to forwarding that earned him a top ten place in the British penalty chart last season, perhaps his roll is more of a, um, persuader. And at 220lbs, which sounds much more intimidating than a measly 100kg, who am I to argue with him re-signing for a second term?
While on the subject of large gentlemen with a persuasive disposition and propensity to physical coercion, Grant McPhearson, who had the third highest PIM last season, comes to mind. While Milton Keynes may have appeared fairly quiet for a week or two, there was something of a newsfest at the Supporters AGM. British forward McPhearson, for one, re-signed as did backup netminder Alex Mettam for his second year. Coach Nick Poole remarked he felt the goalie’s best was yet to come even though Mettam finished top of the EPL netminding chart. The Lightning were in the enviable position of having two top British EPL netminders, both over 90% and both holding top ten places. And they still are because Barry Hollyhead also re-signed for his sixth year with the club.
But the big coup announced at the AGM was the signing of top scoring Monir Kalgoum for a second season. Coach Poole said he thought the Swede was the best centre in the EPL, and who can blame him for a remark like that when the forward reeled in a 92-point haul?
This latest news has created an interesting situation at MKL with twelve of the thirteen player moves announced so far being returnees from last year’s team. Weeks ago Coach Poole said he had a queue at his door, and that appears to be the case, and a situation unique in the EPL. Poole also confirmed he had been talking to ex-Lightning forward Gary Clarke, currently with the Flames, but then so had other clubs so maybe this returning sequence will remain unbroken a while longer. The only exception to all this is forward Ross Bowers who has signed for the ENL MK Thunder instead.
The Flames, meanwhile, had a quiet week, as did the Wildcats but not so the Tigers. Ex-GB junior netminder Martin Clarkson signed on as starting goalie in a two-way deal with Cardiff Devils of the EIHL after five years in New York State college hockey. But what was catching the eye was the open trials held by the club at the weekend. Coach Tom Watkins said he had received a lot of interest in the proposal and not just local guys but some from quite far afield. He added he had twenty-five names attending, so next week, hopefully, we will learn of how successful the venture was.
Can’t wait!
For more EPL facts, figures and news try my website – www.iceman-epl.com
Contact Bill.Collins@prohockeynews.com
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