steeltalk.co.uk

Forwards

08 Ryan Tait - Keep, will only improve.
13 Mitchell Heard - Release.
15 Stephen Harper - Release.
18 Sam Tremblay - Keep, but does he want to keep playing hockey? I thought he was looking to start something new?
23 Brett Richie - Release.
27 Cole Shudra - Keep, not his best season in Orange though this season.
62 Evan Jasper - Keep.
63 Mikko Juusola - Keep.
75 Robert Dowd - Keep. Perhaps his last season.
92 Mitchell Balmas - Keep, league MVP.

Defenders

05 Joona Huttula - Release.
06 Kevin Tansey - Retiring?
10 Jordon Southorn - Release.
55 Jack Dougherty - Release.
58 Dominic Cormier - Keep.
65 Brien Diffley - Release/undecided.
67 Reece Kelly - Keep.


Netminders

01 Matt Greenfield - Keep, under contract.
34 Curtis Warburtonn- Keep, unlikely to play many games.
37 Eamon McAdamm - Keep, if he’s happy playing around 20 games.


Two Way players

32 Alex Oldale (NM)
03 Liam Steele (D)
72 Ivan Björkly-Nordström(F) - Keep, will play in the first team next season.

Similar to our list on Sunday:

Staying:
Greener
McAdam
Warburton

Cormier
Diffley
Dougherty
Steele

Balmas
IBN
Dowd
Juus
Tait
Tremblay

Fox??

The above is based on 4 of us marking every player out of 5. We set the bar at 14 in total, so anything less than that and they're on our release list.

To be fair there were quite a few who fell just short with 12 or 13.

Regards

Doom

Keep list: Time for wholesale changes for me...

Ryan Tait
Mitchell Heard
Sam Tremblay
Evan Jasper
Mitchell Balmas
Dominic Cormier

Matt Greenfield
Eamon McAdam

Robert Dowd
Reece Kelly
Ivan Björkly-Nordström

Release everyone else...

Seen these players now so for me i would like to see a total new squad , not that some are not good enough to return but purely from a personal point of view of seeing what is out there,,,,, all the great players were new to the team at one point,,,

I know it’s been said before that this is potentially meaningless in that contracts can be cut or walked away from - but do we know who is on multi-year contracts?

I know of Greenfield and Jasper, not sure if Cormier was - or is he at the end of the 2 year deal now?

I think Tansey has done the farewell wave at both the arena last game and the final now. We wondered whether Dowd, having his kids on the ice and the look in his eyes/demeanour on the closeups at the last home game, might be thinking of hanging the skates up. Although there were articles earlier in the year when he was saying no way ready yet - who knows lol.

Netminders: keep both Greenfield and McAdam, if they want to stay. If McAdam wants to be a full starter somewhere else then we could do worse than lure Whistle back.

Brits: keep all*.

Defence: the D went awol too often this year so we need to upgrade here. Keep Cormier, toss a coin to keep one of Huttula/Diffley, upgrade the rest.

Forwards: Tricky one this. A lot of this season we needed to outshoot teams by a factor of three to get goals, which is either a confidence thing or lack of quality in finishing. I think keeping Tremblay is a no-brainer if he's still keen to play. I know Heard is a liability at times but you need someone like that, a Brendan Connolly or Vallerand type who gets under the opponents skin. Balmas/Juusola I would keep, Ritchie I doubt will be back to that's moot. The rest of the forwards I don't hate but I feel we could upgrade on. I know Tait had a great playoffs but for parts of the regular season I think he probably under-performed.

*Personally I don't want to see another season where Shudra and Warburton play low-to-zero minutes, so I think for those lads' development they need to either drop down to NIHL or move to a team/league where they can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.

Greenfield
McAdam (if he wants to)

Cormier
Diffley
Kelly or Steele

Balmas
Dowd
IBN
One of Tait or Jasper

That's it for the keep for me

I agree with Doom’s list but would add Kelly unless replaced full time by Steele. Although I take Clear the Zone’s point about some of the Brits. They need to take regular shifts and if they’re not reliable enough then we can’t carry the dead weight.

I wouldn’t take Jackson Whistle back, he’s too injury prone. Belfast can keep his brother too.

I'm not fussed about either Whistle Brothers either to be honest. Brandon has a decent shot, but as mentioned is too injury prone and too lightweight on the puck for me.

As for Brit goalies, I doubt the Steelers will ever see a number 1 Brit goalie. The pressure to win games is too heavy, so we're unlikely to ever take a chance on someone like Warburton, especially when we are rolling 1A and 1B import goalies.

Was Whistle the last Brit goalie to play as either a number 1 or 1B goalie regularly?

Wonder where the next Bowns is?

I don't think the Steelers will see him, as they just don't play any of the Brit goalies apart from 20 minutes here and there a season.

Purely food for thought, top 10 on the +/- according to Eihl:-

1 Diffley
2 Dowd
3 Dougherty
4 Tait
5 Jasper
6 Southorn
7 Juusola
8 Balmas
9 Tremblay
10 Cormier

A couple of surprises in there for me.

It’s not always a logical numbers game we all know, just thought it was interesting.

Cheers