Swindon Wildcats Roundup

SWINDON, UK –  First news of the month was the re-signing of Slovakian forward Jozef Kohut filling the Wildcats’ final import slot. Last season Kohut was the team’s leading assist scorer, was second in goal scoring and points with an average over a point per game. Coach Ryan Aldridge said of him: ‘He is a player that can change a game for you at any point. He is our third and final import to sign and he will add even more fire power to an already impressive offensive line-up.’
 
Midway through the month came the fiasco at the EIHL Braehead Clan for whom Wildcats’ 19-year-old forward Sam Bullas had signed in May. Bullas and Bison’s Shaun Thompson both joined the new Elite League side but were released without firing a shot or a sensible explanation. Clan Coach Bruce Richardson said: ‘I think that it is extremely important to have a roster that includes local depth players.’ And signed 17-year-old Steve Chalmers, a local lad with some experience in the Ontario Hockey Academy in Canada. But Coach Aldridge wasted no time stepping in with the pen, and Bullas was back on the Wildcats’ books. ‘It’s great to have Bully back,’ said Aldridge, ‘He finished last year very strong and was a player I wanted to sign again.’ So now he has.
 
Meanwhile, British Wildcats’ D-man Andy Finn signed for Newcastle’s ENL side the Northern Stars.
 
At the end of the month the Wildcats signed James Hadfield as backup netminder to Chris Douglas. Hadfield played seven games last season for the then Scimitars and is a GB U18 international. Coach Aldridge said, ‘It’s been a long time since we have had a back-up that can challenge the starter, and play games for us.’
 
Clearly the coach feels Hadfield is good enough to do that which creates a very interesting situation. Douglas is undoubtedly a top netminder having finished the season in fifth spot on save average. To get his figures a bit more into perspective it is worth noting he faced on average four shots every five minutes, the heaviest peppering of the top ten netminders, and in conceding a goal every fifteen minutes faced on average 35 shots per game, just one below the highest recorded average against top ten netminders, that being Peterborough’s Stephen Wall at number ten.
 
So Hadfield has some very big boots to fill, but clearly Aldridge feels he is the man to do it and having had my curiosity piqued I asked the coach if he thought the youngster would get more ice time than recent backups?
‘ Yes, I think James will get to start a few games for us.’ Said Aldridge. ‘He will most likely play at least one warm up game so we can see him in a game situation before the season starts.’
 
Following the signing Coach Aldridge went on to say, ‘Our line-up is about done, and I like the way the team is looking.’ That makes the Wildcats the third team to announce a complete roster, with the Bison and Phantoms already having done so.
 
Although having been a player since his arrival at the Wildcats, Ryan Aldridge has also been player-coach and, since hanging up his skates part way through last season, purely head-coach. I wanted to know which coaching roll he thought most suitable to the EPL. His initial response, that it depended on the team was unexpected. He said, ‘ I think it’s possible to be a player-coach if you have the right team. I have been a player-coach before and it has worked and we were very successful. I think it’s easier to just be a coach as you can see things going wrong quicker and you also see who is not pulling there weight that night. I think they both have pros and con but the pros are in the favor of just a head-coach.’ So that clears that up.
 
With roster that will start the season at seventeen, one less than a year ago and two down on the year before that, it looks like there will be room for introducing some young blood, so I asked the coach if he had his eye on any particular player? He replied, ‘ Danny Williams is a guy that will dress a few games for us I’m sure. He is a kid that is hungry to play. He is not the biggest player but he plays like a pitbull. He never stops working, strong in the corners, skates well and has a good shot.’
Williams has been playing in the junior teams for some five years and has some respectable figures, but what about his future prospects, is he likely to make a regular first-team starting place? Coach Aldridge said, ‘I am sure he will keep players in our line-up on there toes.’
 
So that’s it for August and by this time next month there will be results on the table to consider. And a final word from the coach: ‘We now have three solid lines and I am confident that we will be stronger as a team than last year. We have made our defence core stronger, added more strength and depth to our forward line-up and now have a goalie that I believe was the best in the league for the last eight weeks of last season and a back-up we are fully confident in.’
 
 
For Wildcats headlines, facts, figures and more hockey articles, you might like to try my website – www.swindonwildcats.me.uk  
Contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com