Player signings thread - Sheffield...

[ginger]

It's Curtis back for his 5th season as back up.
All the build up again to just be disappointed.
Thay really are rubbish at this announcement nonsense

As much as Simms has done for the club over the years, the social media strategy is consistently poor. By all means advertise raffle tickets, make sponser related posts, but when everyone knows the signings have happened due to rumour accounts, either need to just release the news, or if you want to wait for paperwork etc, put out a post that states that - don't need to name players, but just a "we've reached agreement to sign a player, waiting on visa confirmation etc before announcing"

Just better expectation management for signings.

Also we need way more content that is not sales/sponser focussed - think there's been about 2 'content' pieces all summer.

Pleased Curtis is back, also allows for Oldale to get consistent games under his belt with the Dogs

[Rendo]

100% agree, no idea why we can't just announce like ALL the others do. Makes us a bit of a laughing stock im my opinion

[smbmetal]

It's Curtis back for his 5th season as back up.
All the build up again to just be disappointed.
Thay really are rubbish at this announcement nonsense

I wonder if we'll ever see a Brit goalie as number 1 at the Steelers?

We're not a club that will play Brit goalies regularly, so unless they want to play in a league lower all the time, I personally struggle to see the point in signing for the Steelers? Better training facilities perhaps?

Curtis is 24 years old in October. Surely he ought to be looking for a regular EIHL starting presence rather than signing as backup for us where he'll play about 1 game a season if both our import goalies are fit?

[paul johnston]

Curtis and the Steeldogs netminders is an interesting one. Is oldale thought of more than Curtis with Oldale going to get good game time at Steeldogs, or is Curits with him being the Steeler Brit back up.

[ginger]

It's Curtis back for his 5th season as back up.
All the build up again to just be disappointed.
Thay really are rubbish at this announcement nonsense

I wonder if we'll ever see a Brit goalie as number 1 at the Steelers?

We're not a club that will play Brit goalies, so unless they want to play a league lower all the time, I personally struggle to see the point in signing for the Steelers? Better training facilities perhaps?

Curtis is 24 years old in October. Surely he ought to be looking for a regular EIHL starting presence rather than signing as backup for us where he'll play about 1 game a season?

Curtis, unfortunately, is not yet at that level. There's no way he's ready for starter duties or even 1B.

We will have one, as soon as one is good enough that's not named Bowns or Whistle.

Goalies often develop later as well - even at NHL level, it's pretty common that goalies don't get a real shot at bigger minutes until 25/26 onwards.

The problem we have in terms of development is the level of junior/2nd tier hockey here, and then cost for goalies - I'd estimate at in excess of £2000 just to get started with kit. Now considering they might need 3-4 full sets of kit as they go from u10s to senior, it's probably £10k investment just in kit. We need better access to get goalies started, and then more coaching (I guarantee goalies at u10, u12, u14 don't get anything like the coaching skaters get), and then for the best kids to compete against each other, rather than have 1 or 2 on a team that are streets ahead.

[ginger]

Curtis and the Steeldogs netminders is an interesting one. Is oldale thought of more than Curtis with Oldale going to get good game time at Steeldogs, or is Curits with him being the Steeler Brit back up.

100% Oldale is the more highly regarded. He needs the game time, but his skill base and ceiling are both higher than Curtis.

Oldale could well get to Bowns/Whistle level of genuine starter

[paul johnston]

Curtis and the Steeldogs netminders is an interesting one. Is oldale thought of more than Curtis with Oldale going to get good game time at Steeldogs, or is Curits with him being the Steeler Brit back up.

100% Oldale is the more highly regarded. He needs the game time, but his skill base and ceiling are both higher than Curtis.

Oldale could well get to Bowns/Whistle level of genuine starter

Agree, obviously what i thought too, Curtis must be very accepting of the situation.

[Doom]

I think Warburton was the best realistic option, so I'm pleased to see him back.

He's 24 this year and never been close to 90%, so I don't realistically see him making it as a regular starter in the EIHL and probably only a bit part player in the NIHL.

Oldale on the other hand is only 21 this year and still has plenty of time to improve, so his development is better served playing regular hockey.

To make it with one of the big 4 teams he'll need to be able to achieve the Holy Grail of a 92% minimum save percentage. That's a big ask which has only been achieved by one fully British trained netminder to date. He did get close in a limited number of games with Manchester, so he certainly has the potential.

It will be interesting to see how Oldale develops behind the Dogs defence.

As noted by ginger further up, it's a costly sporting passion being a netminder at junior level and certainly not one for a family on minimum wage.

Many years ago I worked in the same building as a firm of Accountants and one of the chaps there was a Steelers regular, so we'd often have a chat on the staircase. His son played for one of the Sheffield junior teams and he told me all their disposable income went into hockey.

Whilst probably stretching the truth a little bit, I'm sure he mentioned they totted it up one year and they'd spent £13k on hockey and that was 20 years ago. I say stretching the truth, because it included a holiday to Canada for the family to watch their son in an international tournament, but the cost of the equipment was horrendous.

I believe his son was very good and did even play as the Steelers back-up once, but his timing was rubbish, because unfortunately he was around at the same time as Bowns, so never made the step up because Bowns was always one step ahead.

I think he eventually just gave it up.

Regards

Doom

[ginger]

People also forget just how good 20 year old Bowns was - he was way ahead of pretty much all current Brit netminders around that age.

Cost is horrendous to play hockey now - quick breakdown of playing rec as an adult:

Kit from scratch (not even top of range ) - £900
Sticks - £125 each
Fees - £100 approx registration, £12 average per training cost (an hour probably). Games - £10 per game.
Then add travel, hotels (if going for weekend tournaments etc)

So just as a rec player, playing once a week, it quickly adds up.

[Doom]

People also forget just how good 20 year old Bowns was - he was way ahead of pretty much all current Brit netminders around that age.

Cost is horrendous to play hockey now - quick breakdown of playing rec as an adult:

Kit from scratch (not even top of range ) - £900
Sticks - £125 each
Fees - £100 approx registration, £12 average per training cost (an hour probably). Games - £10 per game.
Then add travel, hotels (if going for weekend tournaments etc)

So just as a rec player, playing once a week, it quickly adds up.

I remember one of the other issues raised by Paul was getting ice time.

It may have been prior to Ice Sheffield, so probably not as bad now, but I recall him mentioning they had to travel down to Nottingham on a Friday night to get an hour of ice time at 10pm.

They'd get back home after midnight.

I'm terrible with names, but I think his son was called Jonathan Tindall?

Unfortunate for him that Bowns was a freak who comes along once in a generation.

Regards

Doom