The Walkeden Review - Recent Procedings

So it's not been a month since the season ended and it's already been an interesting off-season but it would be boring if it was quiet.

The most surprising was the sacking off league winning head coach Gerad Adams who had his contract terminated by the Sheffield Steelers. This moved shocked a lot of fans not just Sheffield fans but around the league I mean the man had won one league championship and a playoff title in just 14 months in charge as well as losing two cup finals in that time as well.

Tony Smith said in an interview that the reason for the sacking was nothing he had done but he was looking at the bigger picture. I might not agree 100% with the sacking but I try and be as neutral as possible especially when I'm updating and while I too like to look at the bigger picture I did understand Tony Smiths decision to cancel the contract of Gerad. The picture Tony is looking at is a culture change in Sheffield especially with us taking part in the Champions Hockey League and the formation of the U20 league as well as our commitments in the EIHL, so Tony Smith has gone on record saying that he wants a head coach that can handle the responsibility off all this and he feels Gerad Isn't qualified enough for this which in one way might be insulting any maybe had handled it wrong and I don't think he would have accepted another post. From the moment the news was announced fans have been moaning and I agree everyone is entitled to an opinion but I'm not arguing that, but fans are now worried about whether certain players will come back because of the departure of Adams but it's not always the coach that sells the club I'm preety sure Tony Smith has a part to play. It is also why in this sport you should never get too attached to players because it's not like football and contracts don't always mean something, you get the odd player that hangs around for years for example, Legue, Phillips, Hewitt and Thomas and then you always get the players that don't stay for a year or two.

Where the fans worry about players returning with Adams no longer being in charge you've only got to look how they function elsewhere for example in the NHL when do you ever hear about the Head Coach recruiting players? You don't it's nearly always the work of the General Mangers to sign players, handle trades etc, obviously the head coach will have a say on what he thinks he needs but it's not all the head coach and what I'm trying to get at is there no need to worry as it's not always the coach that sells the club, their surroundings, the owner, staff and most importantly the fans will help sell the club to them. We might get the odd player that doesn't come back which is likely and fans will say it's because they sacked Adams well that hockey for you. I like to think CHL will have a big part to play to help players decide! Okay realistically we can't and won't win it but it's the opportunity of playing against some of the best players in Europe so plenty of selling points which fans don't think about just concentrate on one aspect.

So far we've found out Mathieu Roy is back for a further two years which joins Ben O'Connor as he's got two years remaining on his contract. Cullen Eddy and Colton Fretter are returning on the second year of their university deal, Robert Dowd, Jonathan Phillips Jeff Legue are also returning on the final year of their current contracts. Peterborough Phantoms also announced that Luke Ferrara wouldn't be returning and since then the Sheffield Star announced that Ferrara had signed a full time deal with the Steelers to make that 8 players already for the 15/16 season. We also found out that Frank Doyle is retiring and he had also said that if it wasn't for his hand injury he would have been back in Sheffield, he might have only been a Steeler for two years but what a two years is what he performed every single night and I believe we all wish him the best of luck for the future.

We've also just found out that our new head coach will be Paul Thompson, okay it was probably the worst best kept secret to date but I'm not going to lie that I'm over the moon with it and Paul isn't going to be just our head coach he's also going to be the general manager which means he will overlook all things on the hockey side of business.

Anyone that thinks this is a bad appointment well he's not just an ex elite league coach. He's the best British coach around and probably "one" of the best coaches to ever be on these shores. A coach that took Great Britain forward when everybody thought they would never get where they are today. He went to Europe and competed, improved himself and is coming back even better than when he left. Looking at the bigger picture this is the way forward that's obviously my opinion.

That's it from me, well until Thompson makes a signing and we'll have an article piece so enjoy the summer guys and you'll hear from us soon.
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