Steelers SIGNINGS/Departures. Confirmed only , no rumours please

[Jayboy]

Marco De-filippo is next

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

[Jayboy]

Daniel Leavens confirmed as our 5th this morning

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

[Doom]

I guess the back up netminder has least interest.

His save percentage of 89.2% last season looks quite poor, but the other netminder on the team was down at 87.9%, so he was probably performing on a poor team.

Whilst I don't think he's number one material, he looks a more than adequate back up who should be capable of a decent percentage behind our defence.

Regards

Doom

[ginger]

Shame about Betker, but I still think we have upgraded. Huttula looks class, potential to be slightly better than Nev, but at least at the same level. Guimond replaces Sam Jones which I would say on paper is an upgrade. France is so difficult to read as it's a real mixed bag, but he's been playing on one of the top 2 teams which suggests he's on the better end of the quality scale in that league. Also was top scoring Dman in the league season before last.

Janutainen may be a slight risk, but as Fox put it, if he'd have called 2 years ago, Janutainen hangs up on him. Ceiling is best player in the league, I think head says he's probably similar to Juusola. I'll take that.

Leavens now confirmed too. Very happy with this. On paper should be an upgrade on Allen.

De Filippo as well confirmed. Should provide very good relief for Greenfield.

Overall, top job on recruitment. Probably harder to get excited, since we have so many known quantities coming back. To me it's a 3 horse race for the league between us, Belfast and Cardiff.

[mark]

My general thought is that this is a general upgrade from last year although I think we'll miss Scotty Allen, the ceiling is higher though with Janatuinen being the wild card, potentially amongst the best in the league.

[Jayboy]

Confirmed Team Roster

Forwards

13 Daniel Leavens ✓
12 Daniel Ciampini ✓
14 Patrick Watling✓
24 Mark Simpson ✓
27 Cole Shudra ✓
53 Joel Janatuinen ✓
62 Angelo Miceli ✓
63 Mikko Juusola ✓
74 Brandon Whistle ✓
75 Robert Dowd ✓
88 Marc-Olivier Vallerand✓
92 Mitchell Balmas ✓


Defenders

05 Joona Huttula ✓
06 Kevin Tansey ✓
23 Colton Saucerman ✓
44 Sacha Guimond ✓
58 Dominic Cormier ✓
65 Brien Diffley ✓


Netminders

01 Matt Greenfield ✓
30 Marco De-Filippo ✓


Two Way players

05 Ivan Bjorkly-Nordstrӧm ✓
28 Nathan Ripley ✓
30 Ben Norton ✓
34 Curtis Warburton ✓
66 Finlay Ulrick ✓
86 Morgan Clarke-Pizzo ✓
98 Tate Shudra ✓

[paul johnston]

So that's the final current anyway pieces of the jigsaw. I'm a bit disappointed no Betker, which seemed to be nailed on for ages. Do we know why?
Apart from that, these guys names have been out their for ages and they may as well have announced them earlier.
I think overall team looks great. D probably better, slightly weaker fourth line-thats the loss of sam Jones and replacing him with one of the two way forward players.
We should be there or there abouts challenging again at the top.

[ginger]

So that's the final current anyway pieces of the jigsaw. I'm a bit disappointed no Betker, which seemed to be nailed on for ages. Do we know why?
Apart from that, these guys names have been out their for ages and they may as well have announced them earlier.
I think overall team looks great. D probably better, slightly weaker fourth line-thats the loss of sam Jones and replacing him with one of the two way forward players.
We should be there or there abouts challenging again at the top.

Not sure how accurate, but saw a post somewhere suggesting he may be retiring with a view to becoming a ref. Might be rubbish, but he's still unsigned which makes continuing playing in Europe less likely (most teams are all but completed), so unless heading back to NA, it might look to be along the right lines.

To be fair if you want to be a top ref, starting earlier than waiting til 35/36/37 is probably a good shout

[ginger]

So now we are complete, what's everyone's guesses at lines?

Ciampini/Balmas/Leavens
Juusola/Watling/Janutainen
Miceli/Simpson/Dowd
Shudra/Whistle/Ulrick (or Ripley)

Cormier/Tansey
Sauce/Diffley
Huttula/Guimond

Vallerand as the spare - however, I think this will be rotated to allow extra rest for different players based on injuries/form

[Doom]

My updated guess:

Cormier/Tansey
Sauce/Diffley
Huttula/Guimond

Ciampini/Watling/Juusola
Balmas/Dowd/Vally
Janatuinen or Miceli/Simpson/Leavens
Shudra/Whistle/Ulrick

I can't see Vally sitting out after his goal scoring exploits last season, although he will need to be carefully managed.

Possibly switch Leavens and Juusola to put the Finns on the same line.....that would be a nightmare line to play against.

Overall comparing with last season, I think we're about the same at the back end and maybe slightly weaker in the forwards, although if Janatuinen comes off it's possibly a break even

One area I'm a little concerned is faceoffs, because I don't see our centers matching up well with Belfast on that front, which could be crucial on special teams. Maybe Balmas will take a few more, because he generally did quite well.

Regards

Doom