SWINDON, UK – Another quiet week, although not for much longer, of course.
The Jets also took their first step to patch up their defence following the loss of Paul Swindlehurst and James Morgan, and they did it in style with the signing of Alex Symonds who has previous EPL experience with the Wildcats, Phantoms and Tigers, and more recently in the Elite League with the Cardiff Devils.
At the other end of the rink, the Jets re-signed forward Ryan Watt who for the last two seasons has started for the Bees and the Wildcats but completed things in Slough, and now joins for a full season.
The mention of Watt for some unfathomable reason brings to mind penalty minutes, possibly because he has been known to accumulate the odd one or two while older brother Nicky has a stronger claim to fame in that department. No, this is not a Watt-bashing piece but as these two young players are both still currently playing and have been through what might be termed the transition between the old style dash-and-bash and the more recent gentlemanly approach intended to promote skill rather than brute force, you come up with quite a revealing comparison.
If we look at the figures from as far back as 2005, which we can call old style for the sake of comparison, and put them up against current numbers the big surprise is just how many of the top penalty-takers are still playing. OK, so that is only a six-year period, but a lot of players have gone under the bridge in that time, in fact nearly eight hundred rostered with a few more temporarily, so during that time most have fallen by the wayside. Therefore, with the turnover of players and change in styles you might think a similar ratio would be reflected in penalty minutes. But not so.
Take, for instance, Lithuanian Andrius Kaminskas, still only 31 years old with a fifteen-year career behind him and as recently as two years ago icing in the EPL for the Bees but has just signed on for Romford in the ENL. The reason he wins the Blue Riband Trial Stakes is for reaching the finishing post with an amazing 1,130 penalty minutes during the period in question, so not his EPL total, but still well over one hundred minutes beyond his nearest rival. Oddly, he isn’t in the top ten for the period on penalty point’s game average.
Number two, well that would be Brother Watt senior starting for the Wildcats this term and who, but for a mere minute, failed to get into quadruple digits, so another reason why Kaminskas paces the winner’s enclose alone. But Watt is not alone in the top ten because two other Swindon players, Shane Moore and Joe Baird, are also top tenners.
At number four sits ex-Flames’ Czech D-man Vaclav Zavoral who hasn’t played for a year but at thirty it is not out of the question and who is the only top ten placing not currently playing. The remaining positions are all occupied by Brits, namely Daniel Croft, Adam Greener, Nicky Chinn, Michael Wales and, if you count his few weeks at the Jets, James Morgan.
As far as a penalty minutes game average goes, the top ten is occupied by some anomalies like Canadian forward Kyle Shutte who, in the 2006-07 season played one game for the Scimitars and bagged 25 mins. Four players, however, are worth a mention because they iced for at least a couple of seasons.
Lightning’s Kurt Irvine, for one, now at thirty-five years-of-age hasn’t played for two years but spent nearly six minutes per game in the box in when he did. Of the three others Nathaniel Williams and Norman Pinnington have both signed on with the ENL and also claim a fraction under six minutes per game, while Andre Payette with a similar claim is probably going to attract some notice this season because he is still playing too.
When it comes to purely Brits then nine of the top ten are still playing and seven on game average. Overall that means nearly ninety per cent of the highest penalty-takers from six years ago are still playing, so what happened to the old style?
Meanwhile the Phoenix added a third import with the signing of Slovakian forward Juraj Faith who has a wealth of European experience behind him and we wonder if he will fit the ‘rough diamond’ persona the Phoenix are looking for. Another rough diamond still looking for a seat is Andrew Sharp who, at least according to the Phoenix, has yet to confirm the Flames deal is off so, ‘watch this space’ as they said.
The Tigers’ welcomed Marek Hornak back to the side following his departure part-way though last season to complete his studies. The Slovakian forward said his academic demands had lightened enough for him to juggle his schedule and return to the ice.
The Flames came in at the end of the week with a quick burst of news that 19-year-old forward Scott Greenfield, a local junior system graduate, was returning after acquitting himself well the previous season and in a few starts before that, and joining him, as expected, will be 18-year-old GB Under18 netminder James Hadfield late of the Wildcats.
That completes the Flames roster at eighteen, with just the Bison having already made the declaration, so with a further six names added that must mean about six to go as the countdown continues.
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Contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com
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