Steelers signings and departures

[Doom]

Whilst Belfast probably do have good contacts, the players in the ECHL putting up good numbers are there for all to see.

Someone like Pearson will be on numerous teams radar, but ultimately money will be the main driving factor into where a player ends up.

Nearly every year when I do my goalscoring stats Belfast come top of my predictions. I believe there's one very good reason for that.....they spend more than everybody else.

Regards

Doom

[Clear The Zone]

I very much doubt it's all about the money. Personal contacts and access to various agents will inevitably play a huge part, and Keefe will be unrivalled in the league as far as north american contacts go.

Don't believe the impact a network of contacts has? We were probably throwing the most money around in the IEHL when PT recruited the disastrous 2018-19 side. And we won the CC in 2020 with Fox, essentially a rookie coach, off the back of his recruitment network.

[glenngiant]

O2 money lol. I imagine when players are sold the idea of Belfast they do due diligence, a team always competing for titles, players have short careers and want to win things. The culture of the club and how it's run, I can't remember the last time a player has left and said it was a poorly run club/dressing room. Past players our are ambassadors overseas and sell the club when asked about it.

Keefe will also tell them that the Giants are a stepping stone into Europe and can point to previous players that have gone on and bettered themselves ie Owre, Ruopp etc.

With Whistle and Dickson tandem we can ice an extra import so may well carry a spare from the start though whether that will be a d man or a forward I'm not sure, as has been mentioned Long can play D when required so great depth to have.

Also no CHL this year and we usually use the challenge cup games as an extension of pre season so by the time the league games start we hopefully will have found some chemistry and get off too a good start, last few seasons we have been playing catch up and had to go on long winning streaks to stay up near the top.

[Doom]

Sheffield could also point to many similar selling points outside the financial package:

- A very well run club which ex players talk highly of. There's a reason top EIHL players like Balmas and Greenfield keep returning.

- The largest fan base in the league.

- Much larger away support than Belfast (for obvious reasons).

- Whilst we don't have as much silverware in recent seasons, we are usually competitive and challenging for the title for most of the season.

- Our profile in Europe will have been raised by our performances in the CHL, which were outstanding.

Also playing for Sheffield there's less travel than Belfast have, which might be attractive to some players.

I'm not suggesting Sheffield is a more attractive place to play than Belfast, but I think it's fairly equal when it comes to non-financial selling points.

Which brings me back to my original point, if Belfast are attracting players ahead of Sheffield, then it's more than likely to be down to the financial package offered.

I do also think Belfast have better scouting in North America, but I wouldn't put the signing of Pearson and/or Bates down to that.

Like I said, they're not exactly players going under the radar, both are high scoring ECHL players who will be known to every coach in our league. I would think both got a number of offers, but Belfast will be giving them a very good package.

I'll be interested to see how Belfast complete their roster. At the moment they appear to be one Brit short if they want to play 6d +12f when Kupsky is in goal.

Regards

Doom

[greeny]

Keefe probably has better connections in the hockey world than fox does,,,,,,

[Doom]

Keefe probably has better connections in the hockey world than fox does,,,,,,

He's certainly got better contacts in North America, where he does most of his recruiting from.

Fox on the other hand seems to like doing most of his recruitment from Europe, particularly the ICEHL.

By my reckoning 5 of the new Belfast recruits are straight out of the ECHL, whilst Fox has recruited 0 from North American leagues.

Regards

Doom

[ginger]

Different coaches, different contacts and people they trust.

Belfast also recruited a team in our GS year that most had on paper to be challenging for the league or winning it and they ended up well short. Sometimes things don't work and it's not necessarily poor recruitment.

[paul johnston]

There is no way that Fox wont be able to get access to different agents to recruit players in different leagues if he chose too. Its not a secret society/closed shop.

Its very much a choice to recruit in the way that he does.

If he's not tried to widen the horizon/broaden his contacts/areas to recruit from over the 5-6 years he's been our coach then would seem a slight failure to me.

[greeny]

Keefe probably has better connections in the hockey world than fox does,,,,,,

He's certainly got better contacts in North America, where he does most of his recruiting from.

Fox on the other hand seems to like doing most of his recruitment from Europe, particularly the ICEHL.

By my reckoning 5 of the new Belfast recruits are straight out of the ECHL, whilst Fox has recruited 0 from North American leagues.

Regards

Doom

Yeh and thats why i prefere keefe`s style of hockey [more north american] than foxys more european style,,,,,

[Bryan]

Apparently Fox has signed another player but we are not allowed to know who it is until Monday. More silly games! It all seems rather childish.