Brett Ritchie Signs

[Jayboy]

Brett Ritchie Signs for Sheffield Steelers:

Steelers head coach Aaron Fox has moved quickly in securing the services of 391 game ex NHL’er (Dallas, Calgary, Boston and Arizona) Brett Ritchie from Austrian side Villacher.

Brett is a big, physical power forward who brings a wealth of experience, and a strong net-front presence to our line up.
He plays a hard, north-south game, skates well for his size and and isn’t afraid to do the dirty work and is willing to get to the hard areas. Brett adds size, leadership, and a veteran presence that will be huge for our group both on the ice and in the room.

“We are very excited to get him in and rolling here”.

Ritchie has arrived in Sheffield and travelled to Scotland with the team ahead of this weekend games against Glasgow (tonight), Fife (Saturday) and Dundee (Sunday)

He is here and ready, willing and able to play, we are just waiting for the authorities to grant approval, that may or may not happen this weekend.

https://www.sheffieldsteelers.co.uk/bre ... -steelers/

https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/4 ... tt-ritchie

[Bryan]

Played for two of my favourite teams. I shall after dig out their shirts for him ! Can’t be bad.

[Doom]

Great to get him in so quick, although not convinced he's the player to sort our issues.

Some supporters go all misty eyed when they see the number of NHL games, but I tend to look at the stats after the NHL.

His +/- this season are brutal. Not bad stats the season before, I just hope we've not signed a guy who is rapidly on the downward slope.

Adds some size to the forwards, but as a RW I doubt he'll address our faceoff concerns.

As they say, let's see him play a few games and then see what impact he makes.

Regards

Doom

[ginger]

Looks like he took extra time off before signing in Austria so had to do catch up on game speed (ala Watling). I'd say those DEL stats should be more applicable at full game sharpness.

Called it on this one - hopefully we'll get another spot back and can pick up another

[tim123]

His +/- this season are brutal. Not bad stats the season before, I just hope we've not signed a guy who is rapidly on the downward slope.

Hard to gauge whether the +/- indicates a downward slope or just from playing on a struggling team.

Villacher aren't doing too well in ICEHL this year, so here's hoping it's the latter.

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[MLL79]

Unless it was just for the fight (look up Ritchie vs Kahira - where incidentally he KO’d Kahira…), he was taking the face off for the Flames - maybe he’s up for at least taking the draw?

At 6’4/220lbs, and seemingly primarily a physical player who can also play, he could be very useful indeed at the dump and chase play we seem to adopting - he should be able to dump and bump with the best of them. Would take some of the load from Heard also. (Plus anyone who beats the snot out of Tom Wilson can’t be a bad guy… (sorry any Caps fans - just kidding… lol)

Well done on the staff for acting so quickly.

[greeny]

Hopefully he gives us a different approach and style to games which will be a bit more effective for us,,,,,,

[smbmetal]

Welcome to Sheffield Brett.

Not too bad an age at 32. You certainly don’t play that amount of NHL games if you’re no good.

Hopefully we’ll have signed a player in the Desbiens type mould. He led by example and dragged the team forward on his back. I’m sure Brett’s NHL work ethic will rub off on others. Let’s hope we’ve not signed a statue like Lucic.

I urge caution for anyone looking forward to seeing the physical side of his game. Fox ensures this side of their game is quickly coached out of them IMO. Heard came in with that type of reputation, but he’s no longer showing that side of his game. Same for Tansey.

I remain sceptical if this is the right signing for us. Hopefully I’ll be completely wrong.

[Brian]

If you had been in Fife last night you would have seen Lukic is much more than a statue. He and Booth were the reason we were easily beaten.

[greeny]

If you had been in Fife last night you would have seen Lukic is much more than a statue. He and Booth were the reason we were easily beaten.

That nhl experience has got to count for something, coming through in one form or another, ie being in the right place/ or that pass etc,,,,