Steelers signings and departures

[ginger]

On the club website he describes himself as a creative centre who likes making good passses to set up colleagues. All very nice but apart from Balmas, who is he going to pass it to? Looking at teh team as a whole we need a goal scoring centre.

Balmas/Teissala (who I think is getting underplayed as more difficult to judge coming from Liiga), Juusola. That's half of the top 6. Dowd/Jasper and then Tait in bottom 6. That's before Whistle/Collins added in.

We look to have more output potential on D too with Roe than we did last year.

Of course. Does this rally constitute the upgrade from last season that was so obviously needed, given the Belfast aren’t standing either?

Natural centre is the big upgrade for me. That's a big area of where we struggled last year. Equally, we've released Harper/Heard/Tremblay/Ritchie/a semi fit Watling. We've signed Archambault/Teissala/Rockwood/Collins + final centre. Assuming final signing is top 6, that looks like an upgrade to me

[Clear The Zone]

Rockwood looks good. You don't clock up those type of assist numbers consistently through your career in different leagues and different countries by banking on being teamed up with an Ovechkin every year. The stats say he'll probably be creating a lot of relatively easy goals for any half-decent wingers and offensive d-men. So for all the "but where are the goals coming from" hand-wringing we have to ackowledge that assists don't exist in a vacuum. Someone on every line he's played on has been scoring. Doesn't matter to us who, that just means goals are going in.

Could mean we're in for a season where one single forward doesn't rake up huge numbers of goals, but instead of you get more scoring across the depth of the team, which is usually the hallmark of the better teams in our league.

[Doom]

Well I've been tasked with trying to convince my mate next weekend why we're genuine title contenders.

Comparing our squad with Belfast, I'm not convinced myself that we are, but here goes:

1. We have Matt Greenfield in net. He might not have been quite at his best last season, but we know he can be a 93% netminder which gives a team a chance.

2. Whilst he's no spring chicken, Logan Roe looks like he'll be one of the premium offensive defencemen in the league next season.

3. I wouldn't swap our group of Brits with any other team. We have quality established Brits in Dowd and Whistle and with Steele and IBN we have two of the best young prospects.

4. We have a genuine top level faceoff winner in Collins.

5. We probably have the best 4th line in the league.

6. We comfortably had the best penalty kill last season and have retained the majority of our PK unit.

7. We have Mitchell Balmas.

8. We appear to have a lot of creativity in the squad (ie. Assists).

I'm not sure I'll convince him, but I'm open to any further suggestions.

Regards

Doom

[Keith Sheppard]

Well I've been tasked with trying to convince my mate next weekend why we're genuine title contenders.

Comparing our squad with Belfast, I'm not convinced myself that we are, but here goes:

1. We have Matt Greenfield in net. He might not have been quite at his best last season, but we know he can be a 93% netminder which gives a team a chance.

2. Whilst he's no spring chicken, Logan Roe looks like he'll be one of the premium offensive defencemen in the league next season.

3. I wouldn't swap our group of Brits with any other team. We have quality established Brits in Dowd and Whistle and with Steele and IBN we have two of the best young prospects.

4. We have a genuine top level faceoff winner in Collins.

5. We probably have the best 4th line in the league.

6. We comfortably had the best penalty kill last season and have retained the majority of our PK unit.

7. We have Mitchell Balmas.

8. We appear to have a lot of creativity in the squad (ie. Assists).

I'm not sure I'll convince him, but I'm open to any further suggestions.

Regards

Doom

As always, Doom a thorough analysis of the team as it stands at the moment (with all the stats we have) . With at least one more player to sign, do we still go for that illusive Wow factor centre, or now Gollod is on the market, do we try to shuffle lines to try and sign a proven commodity at EIHL level?

[Doom]

I'd forgotten about Golod, but that's a very good question.

I'm always nervous about players coming back, but at 25 he should still be near his peak and he certainly had an impact when he last played for us, so Fox would have to be interested if he's available.

He's actually listed as a centre on Elite Prospects, but when he played for us it was on left wing.

Out of curiosity I've just had a look back at the game sheets:

Golod/Simpson/Levins
Golod/Dowd/Vally

Those were the lines he played on.

If he was announced as our last import signing, I'd be happy with that. I think he's certainly a player Fox could pencil in for 20+ goals, whether that is as 1st line centre or on the LW with Dowd and somebody else.

It would make the potential line combinations interesting.

Regards

Doom

[ginger]

A neutral opinion on Rockwood from Nat Halbert on X

"Truly pains me to say that the Steelers got themselves a player here. I’m guessing leads the leagues in assists, takes 25 shots for the entire season, and gets kicked out thrice for yelling at Dalton"

Also from his interview, Rockwood states he enjoys body contact so I don't think he'll go missing if physicality increases during a game. Probably likes it as draws players closer to him so opens up gaps for passes.

Trying to find some face off data on him as if he's good in the draw as well then sounds like we do have potentially a very good pick up

[ginger]

I'd take Golod but depends on what centres are still out there. Get someone similar in CV level to Rockwood who is good on draws and I would probably tend down that route

My gut is that Fox may want a bit of size from the last forward - thinking Scott Allen type (I really miss Allen). We've got a lot of skill with the 5 pencilled in for top 6 so I think adding someone with strong board play would help open things up for Juusola/Teissala especially.

[Doom]

My gut is that Fox may want a bit of size from the last forward - thinking Scott Allen type (I really miss Allen). We've got a lot of skill with the 5 pencilled in for top 6 so I think adding someone with strong board play would help open things up for Juusola/Teissala especially.

When we were chatting about Special Teams on Saturday night, my mate pointed out to me that Harper got 8 goals on the powerplay.....big body in front of net.

Looking at our roster to date, there's only really Collins I see as the big body in front of net.

Regards

Doom

[Doom]

I've found some faceoff stats for his time in Slovakia and it doesn't make pleasant reading, which probably explains why Fox didn't mention it in his interview:

21/22 - 42.11%
24/25 - 41.26%
25/26 - 44.56% (HC Presov)
25/26 - 42.10% (HK Spisska)

I'm afraid this concerns me. If he's up against Conway as our 1st line centre he's going to get destroyed in the circle.

Regards

Doom

[Keith Sheppard]

I've found some faceoff stats for his time in Slovakia and it doesn't make pleasant reading, which probably explains why Fox didn't mention it in his interview:

21/22 - 42.11%
24/25 - 41.26%
25/26 - 44.56% (HC Presov)
25/26 - 42.10% (HK Spisska)

I'm afraid this concerns me. If he's up against Conway as our 1st line centre he's going to get destroyed in the circle.

Regards

Doom

How do Collins' stats in the faceoff circle compare? I recall AF commenting that he was our go to guy.