NIHL North: The League by Numbers – Breaking Down the Statistics

(Image permission: Keith & Jenny Davies)

BILLINGHAM, UK – As there was barely any movement to speak of in terms of the team stats we have previously looked at, we are going to explore a statistic that has been a source of annoyance for the author of this blog.

After Sunday’s 3-2 loss against Hull Pirates, former Elite League and current Telford Tigers player Andrew McKinney put out a tweet saying “Finally a decent hockey game” as part of a longer tweet where he moaned about cold showers and warm beers in Hull.

This irritated a few people in some circles and brought on this look at team ages and points within teams.

For this task players have been broken down into five age categories: 16-20, 21-25, 26-30, 31-35 and 36+. So let’s take a look team by team starting with the oldest team in the league (all players who have iced in Moralee D1 this season are taken into account).

Whitley Warriors – Average Age 26.6

Whitley are the oldest team in the league by over a full year. They have the most players aged 31 or over (7) and the league’s oldest player in their legendary player/coach David Longstaff.

The Tyneside club have iced the 4th least players aged 20 and under (6) behind Hull, Sheffield and Solihull (all 5) and the 3rd least point percentage split for those of the same age. Whitley also have the lowest percentage of points from players aged 25 and under.

Solihull Barons – Average Age 25.56

Despite having no players in the 36+ age bracket the Barons have the second oldest roster with the joint fewest players aged 16-20 (5) and the most players aged 26-35 (12).

The distribution of points on the Barons however is quite even as the table below will show and have the likes of Matthew Maurice in the younger age group who is being developed towards a possible EIHL career on a two-way deal with Coventry Blaze.

Hull Pirates – Average Age 24.88

This one was a bit of a surprise as I was under the impression that Hull are building a young team with a good local base.

While an average age of under 25 they aren’t exactly old, but they have the joint lowest number of players in the 16-20 age bracket (5). On the positive side for the Pirates the majority of their roster (11) comes in the 21-25 age bracket as do over 50% of their points.

Telford Tigers – Average Age 24.74

Again the Tigers are not bad for the average age of their roster being under 25. The problem with the Tigers comes from the fact that 48% of their points come from five players all aged 30 and up!

Tigers have the most players in the age bracket 36+ including two players in their 40s and this age bracket takes the biggest share of the Tigers points. The reason this is an issue will be made clear at the end of this blog.

Solway Sharks – Average Age 24.04

Solway are one of only two teams in the league who have more players aged 16=20 than any other age bracket. They also boast the 3rd highest point percentage of any bottom age bracket.

The Sharks average age is dragged up by two 38-year-olds in Kyle Horne and Michael Thomson. The latter has played five games being drafted in from Solway’s SNL side.

Blackburn Hawks – Average Age 23.9

The Hawks have the smallest roster in the NIHL with only 23 players having iced in D1 this season. They also boast four of their top seven point scorers being aged 16-20.

That younger age bracket is helped considerably by two players on two-way contracts with the Elite League in Adam Barnes (Manchester Storm) and Kieran Brown (Sheffield Steelers). However, players like James Royds and Ross Kennedy are also amongst the points. The Hawks are one of only four teams with no players aged 36+.

Sheffield Steeldogs – Average Age 23.77

The youngest of the former EPL sides the Dogs have the fewest players aged 31+ with player/coach Ben Morgan the oldest on the roster at 31. They also only have two players aged 30 in Tim Smith and Dmitri Zimozdra.

Despite this the Dogs have the joint fewest players in the 20 and under group. A league high 16 players sit in the middle 21-30 brackets and account for 86.51% of the club’s points.

Billingham Stars – Average Age 23.19

Billingham have the 2nd least players aged 31 and over in Michael Bowman (38) and Richie Thornton (36) and the 3rd most players aged 20 and under with eight, giving regular ice-time to the likes of Ethan Hehir and James Hellens.

Billingham have the 3rd best points percentage from players under 25 behind Blackburn and Nottingham Lions.

Sutton Sting – Average Age 22.56

The second youngest team in the league are the Sheffield-based Nottinghamshire side Sutton.

The majority of the Stings points come from their more experienced heads in the likes of Stan Lascek and Ryan Johnson with the 26-30 group in second. Sutton do however have the 2nd most players under the age of 21 on their roster with 14.

Nottingham Lions – Average Age 22.46

The league’s bottom side Nottingham are also the youngest, despite having the 2nd most players aged 31 and over. This is because the Lions have used by far the most players this season icing 35 through their 17 games. The next closest is Whitley who have used 30.

Nottingham’s points split is much more in favour of the younger players with 59 of their 70 points still on the roster (Paul Stanley now counting against Solihull) coming from players aged 25 and under.

The Lowe Down

The league structure is as it is because the EPL owners ran that competition into the ground. At present we cannot expect parity across the league when the likes of Telford and Hull go off and splash the cash to bring in players from the Elite League because they are so desperate to win and move up.

We had a situation in junior hockey not long ago where a team ran up the score to prove a point and it was roundly criticised. Maybe we are seeing the same thing here in senior hockey with two teams determined to move up even if they can’t sustain it.

Many Telford fans want a return of an EPL style league even though their overspending was the final nail in the coffin of that league and Hull want to push for Elite League status again even though the city has already lost the old Stingrays to liquidation due to “increased operational costs”.

To take this article full circle, what people like Mr McKinney need to realise is that the EIHA deems the NIHL to be a development league.

By definition a development league should be used to develop younger talent and not be a retirement home for past ‘greats’ of the British game or those on the downturn of their careers to come and take ice time from younger players and humiliate oppositions.

Quite frankly, if McKinney doesn’t like the level of competition then maybe he should take his superiority complex elsewhere and go back to being a little fish in a bigger pond.