HULL, UK – In a joint venture with current owners Mike and Sue Pack and Hull City Council, the Coventry Blaze ownership group has stepped in to assume control of the Hull Stingrays and ensure the team will indeed ice in the Elite League this year.
The Stingrays, who ceased operations last week, will start their season in October to allow extra time for them to prepare from the previous season. The new ownership group have re-signed Player/Coach Sylvain Cloutier to lead the on-ice team in the new season. Cloutier, 36, is a former championship winning Blaze captain and will know the ownership group well, having spent two seasons with the Blaze. The gritty centre is a also a former NHL forward having seen time with the Chicago Blackhawks. Elation has flooded through the Stingrays fanbase, who are excited by the prospect of a new ownership group. Blaze entered the Coventry market and built the team from scratch and have established a winning formula in a similar size rink. Their empire now extends to retail and licenced retail in a City where they are very much in the hearts of the city. Cloutier does face an uphill battle to sign his team with a number of the existing Hull Stingrays players signed elsewhere such as Guillaume Lepine who has moved to the Nottingham Panthers, Stephen Burns who has signed with SC Cortina in Italy and Matt Suderman who has put pen to paper with Elite League rivals Dundee Stars.
PHN wishes the best of luck to the new ownership group at the Stingrays.
Contact the writer; phil.andrews@prohockeynews.com
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