Davey Phillips confirmed for next season

[Doom]

When we did our list of returnees at the playoff weekend D Phillips just failed to make the cut.

Our threshold was 16 and he totalled 14.

It's one of those re-signings which doesn't give me a great deal of enthusiasm, but I don't think it's a disaster either.

If you kept our wingers and defence from last season and added 3 quality centers, we would have won the league.

For me it's the centers I'm most interested in, because that's where we have most scope to upgrade.

Regards

Doom

[smbmetal]

Solid signing, in terms of Brit D men there are no realistic upgrades. Very experienced.

Look what our "Experienced" roster did for us last season. Nothing, not even a weekend at the Playoff finals. We didn't look like winning anything either. A few of us expressed concerns before a puck was even dropped of the age of our roster. Re-signing Davey at 35 years old next season won't help with the average age of our squad which IMHO needs to be younger.

Fox has had his free passes now for me and while I know he's very much loved by many of our fans, I'm of the opinion that his recruitment will need to be critically assessed, I'm not sure he has the contacts now that most of the players he has coached etc previously are now 'Very experienced' players.

Whilst I'm sure my opinion is unpopular, having a trophyless season like last season which went out with a whimper is no where near good enough for the Steelers, especially when coaches of the past have been let go for winning more.

If he’s after a reduction in age he can use the 14 import slots for that. There’s not many EIHL ready Brits on the market so we have to take who we can get, I don’t see many realistic options to upgrade on Phillips as like-for-like D or even at forward. Especially as we need to source an extra Brit with the roster size increasing.

My 1st 2 re-signings for next year with the Brit pack would have been Sam Jones and Brandon Whistle. If we don't sign Brandon and let him go elsewhere that is a huge mistake in my book. Davey didn't quite make the cut for me. I'd be relying on bringing in a development Brit and upping Sam Jones' minutes.

[19Steelers]

Not unhappy with Davey resigning but do think this is his last year. I would be disappointed if Jono is resigned. For me he has gone on for one too many seasons. Still has pace on the penalty kill but other than that gets minimal ice time. Time to turn to a young Brit as well as hang on to Brandon Whistle. Kieran Brown and Cole Shudra had good seasons at Leeds too.