The completed squad - Your verdict

[Doom]

As regulars to this forum know, I love a good stat, but in all honesty it really is very difficult to assess how a players past stats will convert to our league.

Taking the Piccinich and Conway examples above, just look at their numbers prior to joining our league:

Piccinich scored 23 goals in 124 ECHL games the two seasons prior to joining Belfast. When I calculated my pre -season stats I estimated he'd score around 15 goals for Belfast. Clearly Belfast knew something I didn't!!

To put that into perspective, two seasons ago Watling scored 31 goals in 55 games - On this basis we do have a proper top line forward on our hands. Personally I'd be surprised if he matches Piccinich's numbers, but he certainly has the pedigree.

As for Conway, it's a similar story. He scored 12 goals in 40 ECHL games before joining Belfast. Brett Neumann was on the same team as Conway that season and scored 8 from 25 games, so he was effectively outscoring Conway.

I think we do potentially have at least a couple of top 5 goal scorers, but it is always difficult knowing how their past stats will translate to our league.

I agree with the comments above about Juusola, he didn't trouble the scorers at all last season, but assuming he has signed I think he could have a similar impact to Latal.

Regards

Doom

[Daniel14]

It is a very good point that stats in other leagues rarely translate perfectly to performances in the eihl and like I say I like the look of the potential lines in the sense that on any given night, either of the top 3 lines could win you the game but I would be pleasantly surprised if any of our forwards produce at a level that others have in previous years although that may partly be down to the fact we have less reliance on the top line to produce. Hope I’m proved wrong though

And yeah Juusola may have had a bad year last year 10 goals in liiga at 24 y/o is nothing to be sniffed at and I’d imagine off the back of that he’ll be coming in with a point to prove to get back to a good level in Europe. Potential to be a very smart pick up

[Doom]

And yeah Juusola may have had a bad year last year 10 goals in liiga at 24 y/o is nothing to be sniffed at and I’d imagine off the back of that he’ll be coming in with a point to prove to get back to a good level in Europe. Potential to be a very smart pick up

If we have signed him I'll be really interested to hear what Fox says about his drop off in form.

His numbers the season before were outstanding, so was it an injury, confidence, the way he was used etc. that caused his drop off?

I'm hoping it wasn't an injury, because at his age if he still has the same desire and skating ability he should be outstanding at our level.

Regards

Doom

[paul johnston]

Jordan Owens had never been a goalscorer, never been a top line player, but was signed by Thompson to be one because the coach felt he could do that job because we was coming from better leagues than ours. It didn't work that way.
It's a very very imprecise "science" predicting how players will go when they come here. If they have scored wherever they have played you have to assume will do same when get here. But have to take into equation new country, priority of league, fitness, age etc which can make a difference

[ginger]

Jordan Owens had never been a goalscorer, never been a top line player, but was signed by Thompson to be one because the coach felt he could do that job because we was coming from better leagues than ours. It didn't work that way.
It's a very very imprecise "science" predicting how players will go when they come here. If they have scored wherever they have played you have to assume will do same when get here. But have to take into equation new country, priority of league, fitness, age etc which can make a difference

True, but I think part of the reason that we are seeing less of that is better availability of video footage now, and especially since Covid. I'd hazard a guess that is why there's less players being signed on that basis.

[Firefox1001]

So we can pencil in Allen now.

I'm going for:

Vallerand/Watling/????
Ciampini/Allen/Neumann
Juusola/Simpson/Kielly
Dowd/Whistle/Shudra

It probably seems a bit harsh to have Dowd on the 4th, but I think the young Brits would benefit from his experience and because of the way he plays I think he could produce on any line.

Regards

Doom

For me, I'd go with:

Vally / Watling / ?
Ciampini / Allen / Neumann
Dowd / Whistle / Kielly
Juusola / Simpson / Shudra

This way there is better balance on the 3rd & 4th lines.
Kielly could switch with Neumann if he impresses.

[House_of_Steel]

As Doom says it’s very hard to weigh up a players performance on his stats alone, I’ve somewhat learnt my lesson from previous signings of players from higher leagues to our club that have failed to put up excellent numbers at our level. This is due with some research to the fact they are predominantly bottom 6 role players within these respected leagues. We tend to sign these players as smoke and mirror effect to placate the layman supporter into thinking we’ve got a stud signing. IMO. However more often these signings don’t work out.
Here is a list of the said players we’ve had in recent years that have performed to a lesser level than the context in which they were signed.These are all good players in their own right just signed in the wrong capacity as our go to forwards for goals.

Tim Wallace
Martin St Pierre
Justin Hodgman
Evan McGrath
Jordan Owens
Danny Kristo




A major red flag for me is when a said player from these higher leagues hasn’t scored any higher than mid teen goals in the Majority of their professional careers, sometimes stretching back to junior level and/or at AHL, when it’s taken them 70 plus games to amass 20 odd goals.

In recent seasons I’ve looked at who Belfast have signed and seen nothing to differentiate their players from ours on stats alone. This left me somewhat perplexed and taking into account the fact Belfast have good Contacts within North America, I’ve also noticed that the players Belfast are signing have excellent personal Accolades something Ive overlooked in the past. Eg. All star, top scorer awards etc, not team accolades although those are sometimes tied hand in hand.

[Doom]

As Doom says it’s very hard to weigh up a players performance on his stats alone, I’ve somewhat learnt my lesson from previous signings of players from higher leagues to our club that have failed to put up excellent numbers at our level. This is due with some research to the fact they are predominantly bottom 6 role players within these respected leagues. We tend to sign these players as smoke and mirror effect to placate the layman supporter into thinking we’ve got a stud signing. IMO. However more often these signings don’t work out.
Here is a list of the said players we’ve had in recent years that have performed to a lesser level than the context in which they were signed.These are all good players in their own right just signed in the wrong capacity as our go to forwards for goals.

Tim Wallace
Martin St Pierre
Justin Hodgman
Evan McGrath
Jordan Owens
Danny Kristo




A major red flag for me is when a said player from these higher leagues hasn’t scored any higher than mid teen goals in the Majority of their professional careers, sometimes stretching back to junior level and/or at AHL, when it’s taken them 70 plus games to amass 20 odd goals.

In recent seasons I’ve looked at who Belfast have signed and seen nothing to differentiate their players from ours on stats alone. This left me somewhat perplexed and taking into account the fact Belfast have good Contacts within North America, I’ve also noticed that the players Belfast are signing have excellent personal Accolades something Ive overlooked in the past. Eg. All star, top scorer awards etc, not team accolades although those are sometimes tied hand in hand.

Absolutely HoS.

I couldn't care if a player scored 70 points in 70 AHL games in 2017, you need to look at what he's done in the last couple of seasons and the direction of travel.

Nottingham in particular have gone for older guys in the past who had great CV's, but they were rapidly dropping down the leagues and their point production was falling......big red flag.

The exception to this is someone like David Ling. He was in his late 30's but still putting up big points in a league comparable to ours before signing for Panthers......I'd take somebody like that.

I think somebody on here suggested a 39 year old the other day. He was still putting up great numbers in DEL 2 with no sign of a significant drop in his points production in the last 2 or 3 seasons.....I'd take somebody like that.

I just hope our final signing isn't someone like Hodgman or Mcgrath, because we need better.

Regards

Doom

[House_of_Steel]

As Doom says it’s very hard to weigh up a players performance on his stats alone, I’ve somewhat learnt my lesson from previous signings of players from higher leagues to our club that have failed to put up excellent numbers at our level. This is due with some research to the fact they are predominantly bottom 6 role players within these respected leagues. We tend to sign these players as smoke and mirror effect to placate the layman supporter into thinking we’ve got a stud signing. IMO. However more often these signings don’t work out.
Here is a list of the said players we’ve had in recent years that have performed to a lesser level than the context in which they were signed.These are all good players in their own right just signed in the wrong capacity as our go to forwards for goals.

Tim Wallace
Martin St Pierre
Justin Hodgman
Evan McGrath
Jordan Owens
Danny Kristo




A major red flag for me is when a said player from these higher leagues hasn’t scored any higher than mid teen goals in the Majority of their professional careers, sometimes stretching back to junior level and/or at AHL, when it’s taken them 70 plus games to amass 20 odd goals.

In recent seasons I’ve looked at who Belfast have signed and seen nothing to differentiate their players from ours on stats alone. This left me somewhat perplexed and taking into account the fact Belfast have good Contacts within North America, I’ve also noticed that the players Belfast are signing have excellent personal Accolades something Ive overlooked in the past. Eg. All star, top scorer awards etc, not team accolades although those are sometimes tied hand in hand.

Absolutely HoS.

I couldn't care if a player scored 70 points in 70 AHL games in 2017, you need to look at what he's done in the last couple of seasons and the direction of travel.

Nottingham in particular have gone for older guys in the past who had great CV's, but they were rapidly dropping down the leagues and their point production was falling......big red flag.

The exception to this is someone like David Ling. He was in his late 30's but still putting up big points in a league comparable to ours before signing for Panthers......I'd take somebody like that.

I think somebody on here suggested a 39 year old the other day. He was still putting up great numbers in DEL 2 with no sign of a significant drop in his points production in the last 2 or 3 seasons.....I'd take somebody like that.

I just hope our final signing isn't someone like Hodgman or Mcgrath, because we need better.

Regards

Doom

Jeremy Williams snap your hand off for him

[Doom]

That's the chap.

His numbers in DEL 2 would translate well to our league and there's no significant drop off in his numbers.

I'd probably put him down for 25 goals, with 30 being a possibility.

It's all fairly meaningless though, because his name has been randomly picked out from EP, so the chances of him having signed for us are probably similar to my chances of starting for Man City.

I would take somebody of his calibre though.

Regards

Doom