5 Things We Learnt - Cardiff Devils

Thank you to Tony for his contribution to FSB, All Credit for this piece goes to him so any queries you can contact Tony on Twitter @DISGU15ED

The huge Cardiff Devils 2014/15 season makes for an easy five things review, even from a Steelers fan's perspective.

1> All hail the King - the best news for the suffering Devils fans came before the season even began as new owners took over the running of the club. 'Killer' Kelman and his player coach Lord brought the passion back to the club and the BBT. This change was so stupendous it's worth 'five things' on its own, but space is limited...

2> Challenge Cup champions - the Devils deserved their win, but don't believe the urban myth about the victory being bigger than the 2:1 score line suggests. IMO obviously.

3> Travelling Red Army - the outnumbered taffs were determined to turn the neutral Sheffield Arena into an even bigger blue tent for the CC final. The noise was awesome, and the crescendo during the Welsh anthem brought out the best in the home fans too. They left feeling Gwlad all over.

4> From ninth to third - hard to imagine now, but the Devils were 37 points off the top in the top-hat inspired franchise bashing farce that was the 13/14 season. Finishing just a couple off, and being in contention until the last weekend was more than Cardiff dared to hope for - a different bounce or two in the last weekend's Steelers game could have turned it into a fairy-story.

5> More to come in 15/16? - the best bet we have for the Devils not taking the league next year is the recruitment headache that the larger ice at the new arena will bring. Do they stick with a hard-nosed BBT team, or twist and go with a team more suited to the larger ice, or do they get stuck between the two.

Final talking point, remember that hangover game where the Devils lost the plot, and the Steelers went right up to eleven? Those two points were very handy weren't they.

Favourite player : Andrew Hotham - rookie blueliner from the DEL became the elite league's defensive MVP with 21 goals. Maybe not on the same line as our Ben though!

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The Walkeden Review - Jace Coyle Is Added To The Blue Line

Jace Coyle Joins Paul Thompson for a Second Successive Season

24-Year-Old Canadian Defenceman spent last season with Thompson at Aalborg in Denmark and has been convinced to join Thompson at the Steelers for the 15/16 season.

Coyle has had a professional contract with the Dallas Stars as well as their AHL affiliated team the Texas Stars where he played alongside Gord Baldwin who has spent two years at the Steelers. He has also spent time with Idaho Steelheads in the ECHL before moving to Europe to join Aalborg where in 36 games scored 21 points (2+19) adding a further goal in the post season and accumulating 85 penalty minutes through the regular and post season.

Coyle is very early in his professional career but is said to be an extremely good skater probably one of the most mobile defenceman in the league and will be expected to put up points with plenty of Ice time and Jace said that he likes to quarter-back on the powerplay so improvements to any man advantage is a good addition.

Jace Coyle is a massive pick up for the Steelers and certainly look forward to seeing him in orange.

Seth Bennett spoke with Paul Thompson about the signing

listen to ‘Steelers coach Paul Thompson compares new signing Jace Coyle to Neal Martin’ on audioBoom

Peter Spencer spoke with Jace Coyle about signing for the Steelers

listen to ‘INTERVIEW: Defenceman Jace Coyle on signing for @SteelersHockey from Danish side Aalborg’ on audioBoom

One final thing left to say and that is welcome to the Sheffield Steelers Jace Coyle.

I'm also playing in the UK Forum All-Stars 2015 in Sheffield representing the Blue Cross for a second year in a row and any donations big or small will be appreciated and you can donate by pressing the button to the right.

Thanks for reading guys. If you want to get involved please contact us on twitter or find us on Facebook and like us and leave a comment:-

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The Walkeden Review - Moyer Joins Steelers

Steelers today confirmed the signing of 32-year-old Canadian Russel Moyer.

Moyer is the first new signing to the Steelers for the 15/16 season and the defenceman is known as an all-round player in past teams he'd contributed offensively for his teams but more recently he's had to play a more defensive role while in Sweden and adapt to their style of play and as a part of Karlskrona last season they wasn't fancied to get promoted to top division in Sweden but played a big part in helping them achieve promotion to the top division.

A well experienced player who has spent the last 6 years playing in Europe in some good league and will be a good addition to the Steelers, Moyer stands at 6ft and Thompson said he wanted to add a bit more size to the team so expect some bigger guys to come in. Moyer makes that 3 defenceman for the 15/17 season and just below this is his interview with Peter Spencer so take a listen.

listen to ‘INTERVIEW: Defenceman Russ Moyer (@RussMoyer) speaks after signing @SteelersHockey #EIHL’ on audioBoom

On another note good luck to Mark Thomas who after 10 years of service to the Steelers has joined the Manchester Phoenix to be closer to home. Thank you for all the memories Mark you'll be missed but I'm sure we'll see you around the Arena during the season.

I'm also playing in the UK Forum All-Stars 2015 in Sheffield representing the Blue Cross for a second year in a row and any donations big or small will be appreciated and you can donate by pressing the button to the right.

Thanks for reading guys. If you want to get involved please contact us on twitter or find us on Facebook and like us and leave a comment:-

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5 Things We Learnt - Braehead Clan

Thank you to Tony for his contribution to FSB, All Credit for this piece goes to him so any queries you can contact Tony on Twitter @DISGU15ED

More close season ramblings. What five things did we learn about the Braehead Clan, and was 14/15 a glass half-empty or glass half-full season?

1> Fifth to Second - after finishing fifth the previous year almost every Clan fan would have gone without their haggis to finish one point off the top this time. Every team has its slumps and luckily for the Steelers, the Clan ran out of steam just as the fat lady was warming up.

2> CHL baby - I wonder what the nice folk of Geneva or Salzburg or Vienna are going to make of the Purple Army? It's a great reward for a cracking season, and no doubt took away some of the pain. Here's hoping that Clangus has had all of his vaccination shots well ahead of time.

3> Talking of Clangus - you've got to applaud his and the Purple Army's contribution to the POFW. That's the new party block, and this is the team you can support without spoiling your appetite - but book tickets early if you want to get in!

4> Conference beneficiaries* - can't let this review go without 'correcting' the league table. It wasn't their choice to run the league like this, but taking average points won against every other team, the Clan still finish third behind Sheffield and Cardiff. The Blaze, Panthers and Giants can have no complaints. Top work.

5> Challenge Cup QF - the start of the chokers tag, and maybe a sign of things to come for both teams as the Clan allowed a 3:1 first leg lead to slip against Weber's regenerated Blaze, despite scoring first in the second leg. Maybe Finner should try pacing anti-clockwise for a bit.

Final talking point : fresh off the plane Danny Bois didn't know what had hit him on his first trip to Braehead. Zach Fitzgerald versus an unwilling combatant was an introduction he didn't ever seem to recover from. Fitzy ended up with 344 PIM as he and Frank provided lots of proper blue collar Finner hockey!

Favourite player : Leigh Salters - heavy hitting forward who makes space for his line mates.

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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.
Thanks for reading guys. If you want to get involved please contact us on twitter or find us on Facebook and like us and leave a comment:-
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