Davey Phillips confirmed for next season

[dave]

1 year deal for Davey for next year:

https://sheffieldsteelers.co.uk/davey-p ... extension/

[SteelerBlade]

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

[smbmetal]

Davey has been a brilliant servant for the club and I think he is a brilliant character.

For me, I thought Father time had caught up with him and I think last season he looked slow and made quite a few regular mistakes.

Fox needs to find the Brit replacement as I think Davey is very much past his best for us now, I thought Sam Jones would be his natural replacement? Or does he not count as a Brit?

Re-signing Davey does not show that we are re-building for the future for me.

[Jayboy]

Having 2 British D men (presumably Sam Signs) makes a great deal of sense to me and opens up the possibilities on roster elsewhere for Fox when it comes to import numbers etc.. I see the point he wasn't at his best, but maybe we dont know the full story here, I am pretty sure Davey was one of the players playing through injury when really he didn't ought to have been playing at all...

[smbmetal]

I think Sam has already signed hasn’t he?

https://sheffieldsteelers.co.uk/steeler ... ore-years/

[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.

[Morpheous]

Didn’t think he had the best season last season but wasn’t he banged up? With the game day roster being upped to 20 players but still 14 imports that means 6 Brits, so an extra Brit player on last season. Fir that reason I’d take Davey yes.

[paul johnston]

Early signs are same old brit faces and will it be same old import recruitment style?. If so I suspect will be another season struggling to make headway in the league race as Panthers will be better, Devils will be better. But its early days on the squad announcement/recruitment.

Hopefully Fox has an ace or two up his sleeve on the recruitment front with regards to a Brit and the imports.

Glad to see increase in match night bench options to enable potential for full four line hockey. Although with our dads army team always banged up we rarely get the opportunity anyway!!

[SteelerBlade]

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.

[paul johnston]

Is a Davey that is aging, banged up and performing worse a better option than giving a young, less able, experienced Brit a chance to come in and develop.?

I know which way I feel at mo but as always the proof will be in the eating of the pudding.