Sam Jones, confirmed as a departure. Spreading his wings and off to europe, exact destination not known. He's developed into a good solid D'man under Fox, who wishes him well & leaves the door open for him.
I can't blame the fella for giving life a go, and trying overseas.
Leaves our Brit corps weaker. Presumably will run with an all import d corps with an all Brit forwards fourth line. Won't have the balance across four lines we would have hoped for again. Shame no decent level Brit options left to try to sign.
I did hear about this a while ago and it left me wondering how we fill the gap.
Hopefully Whistle will return, leaving us just one Brit short.
Assuming we are intending going with 6d and 12f, the options seem to be:
1. Go all import d and find another British forward.
2. Put Shudra on d and find another British forward. I thought Shudra filled in well there.
3. Find a replacement British d. I thought we might look at bringing David Phillips back, but he's back in Hull. I wonder if there are any others in the North American system like Cameron Pound.
It's going to be interesting to see how Fox deals with this, but at least he's had plenty of notice.
This feels like a great opportunity to use the link with the Steeldogs and rotate a younger Brit in and out of the team, building their experience and creating a competitive environment for the Brits to earn (and keep) there spot.
Looking at the Dogs recruiting so far, we have done this with the forward options, maybe we can do this with the D too.
There is also the option of having a “spare” import D playing with the Dogs to give more options for Fox to use in squad rotation.
It’s probably a risk in the short term but having seen the way Ulrich played last year when given his opportunity, I would be confident in rotating the British forward line. Probably need to be more cautious with the D, although I think the young Brit (Cooper?), showed real potential when he stepped up - perhaps use every few games to build experience without overloading him or the import D.
I enjoyed watching Sam improve year on year. He will be a bigger loss with him being a Brit. Difficult to replace easily with another Brit of a similar standard.
Davey wouldn’t have been the right decision even if available @Doom , I think that would look like a sticking plaster. He’s miles past his best now.
With Fox’s new 3 year contract, he can look at bringing another young Brit through and hopefully develop them to Sam’s standard in a couple of years.
This is the type of thing that can really be a complete pain in the arse for a coach.. When you have everything sorted in your own mind and your thrown a massive curve ball.
Going down the route of all import Defence for me is the smart way and makes the re-signing of both Greenfield and Diffley even more important.
And a even bigger problem is not knowing what happens if whistle hasn't re-signed. If we have potentially 2 bits short we are a 3 and half line team, because an all British 4th line with inexperienced kids is really not something we can not contemplate..
Sam Jones was a massive part of the jigsaw to lose..
Good luck Sam, maybe we will see you back one day.
I believe Sam was injured for a term last season. He played 38 games in total. Anyone know how we did results wise when he didn't play ?
What a re-signing that is. Delighted he's decided to return after considering his no doubt considerable options elsewhere.
Nice to hear that our participation in the CHL has assisted in helping him make the decision to stay.
Sounds like his signing has also persuaded a couple of others to sign as well.
Fox said “With other options out there for him, Greener decided he wanted to run it back which also had a play in a couple other players who weren’t signed yet to also decide to run it back. I couldn’t be happier to have him back and love the way our goalie situation currently looks”.
Looking forward to seeing him continue his legacy as the the best EIHL goalie in Steelers history (IMO).
Excellent, game winning goalie,,,,, club must be in a good position at moment, non of these players would return if club was not run profesionally and did not enjoy their time here and also great fanbase. Turning out to be a big core of returnees. Good times
