Braehead Clan

Ross Gaughan from Clanfans Live Blog previews the Clans debut season

For everyone involved, top flight Ice Hockey back in the West of Scotland is an exiting prospect. And the team that Coach Bruce Richardson is putting together should make for some entertaining hockey in our first season.
Starting at the back, netminder JF Perras seems to be a good signing for the Clan. Although his last season in the Elite League wasn’t remarkable, Perras comes to Braehead with something to prove. A good run of games at the start of the season could see his confidence boost and he could be up there with the top Elite goalies at the end of the season. Backup goalie Michael Will looks to be capable of stepping his game up a notch, and should perform well.
Every netminder needs a good defence, and Perras will have a extremely strong D in front of him. Cody Bostock and Tim Wedderburn look to be a top defensive pairing in the league this year. Their size and skill should be enough to keep a lot of the heat from Perras. The Clan’s second line of defence, Matheiu Wathier and Jon Landry, also look up to the job.
Braehead Arena should be an exciting place to visit this coming season. Most teams seem to have gone with some type of Enforcer. Cedric Bernier joins the Clan promising the fans 30 fights this year. I’ll be happy for him just to deter the opposition’s big players, and protect our forwards on the ice, a job which he seems capable of. But a good number of brawls will hopefully put bums on seats. The addition of Kyle Bruce adds even more toughness to the roster. Between Bernier, Bruce and our D-men, the Clan look to be well guarded.
A slight concern for the Clan this year is their scoring capability. Bobby Chaumont looks promising. His stats suggest he could really excel in this league. The most exciting signing for our inaugural season will probably be Brendan Cook. A true Elite League player, he should be good for quite a few points this season. At this point, Richardson still has one more import to announce. If we can grab a late gem from North America, we should be in for an excellent season. The Brits will have to step up to the plate, but we still have a couple of native forwards to sign And lets not forget about Richardson himself. He’s good for more than a point a game in the Elite League and at the head of his own team, he should be leading by example.

Of the other teams, it has to be said, Belfast look strong. They have several players with AHL experience, and on paper they should own the league. Doug Christiansen is somewhat of an unknown. He worked wonders in Edinburgh, but can he transfer his skills to a team expected to win the Championship?
Coventry again look strong, and may be the only team who can challenge Belfast for the title this year. Nottingham also look decent on paper, but I’m not 100% convinced that they have the consistency to be in the mix. Hull have risen from the ashes, but with some of their players having already moved on, it’s hard to see them causing any real damage. Dundee have really surprised me with their roster. They are building a team that may be lacking in scoring, but will be very tough to play against. I think Dundee will be the “bogey” team for a few of the big guns this season. Edinburgh are a bit of an unknown, but it looks like they may well be fighting it out at the bottom of the league come spring time. Despite the positive PR coming out of Sheffield after the appointment of Ben Simon, I’m not convinced the problems are over for the Steelers. Cardiff looks to be a tough team to play against, but as with Nottingham, it’s hard to see them being consistent enough to place highly.

My predictions could be (and probably are) way off, and I’ll check back here at the end of the season to see just how wrong I was, but here goes:

1: Belfast
2: Coventry
3: Nottingham
4: Braehead
5: Cardiff
6: Dundee
7: Sheffield
8: Edinburgh
9: Newcastle
10: Hull