Sheffield Steelers

Richard ‘Doom’ Craine from Steeltalk previews the 2009/10 campaign for the Steelers

It’s certainly been a much more interesting summer for the Steelers compared to last season.

Last season the squad was signed, sealed and delivered by early June with the intention of following the Coventry Blaze blueprint of continuity.

This summer things haven’t gone quite as smoothly mainly due to Ashley Tait’s move to Italy not being confirmed until well into July.

That move has changed the whole fabric of the Steelers squad with Dave Matsos moving from his preferred system of 4 import defencemen to 3 imports with Ben Morgan filling the void. As much as I rate Morgan as a good up and coming Brit, he’s certainly no like for like replacement for Rod Sarich in defence and as such the Steelers look weaker at the back.

In goal Reiter looks to be a competent replacement for Lehman, but I can’t see him achieving the same level of performance week in and week out.

In attack the Steelers look to be about the same as last season. I really think Rod Sarich will turn out to be one of the top wingers in the league and if Hutchins is in the right frame of mind he could well be an upgrade on Finnerty.

Taking everything into account overall the Steelers look weaker than last season, although I believe they can win the league, I don’t think they will, unfortunately my money is on our friends down the road and the awesome firepower they appear to possess.

For me it’s:

1. Panthers – It’s all about goals for Nottingham, with the likes of McAslan, Clarke and the mighty impressive looking Mann I can’t see anybody getting close to Nottingham’s goalscoring.

They also look much more solid in defence this season with D’Amour being one of the best summer signings for my money.

Question marks over the netminder and the lack of a 1st line centre give the rest of the league hope, but I keep looking at all that firepower and I really do fancy them to break their league hoodoo. (Team Goals 240)

2. Blaze – If a players pedigree is anything to go by then netminding is where Coventry look to have an advantage over their rivals. Hirsch comes over to these shores with an impressive looking CV, if he’s not rapidly in decline then I think it’s fair to say that Coventry have probably got the best netminder in the league.

Defensively Coventry look to be fairly average, but they do have probably the best-balanced forward lines in the league. (Team Goals 215)

3. Steelers – See above. (Team Goals 215)

4. Giants – Like Sheffield Belfast also suffered the loss of a top Brit that resulted in a late change in team building plans. The addition of a 4th import defenceman has possibly given them the best defence in the league, but that comes at the expense of their forwards.

Despite Faubert looking a class act, there just don’t look to be enough goals in the Belfast squad to challenge the likes of Nottingham and Coventry. (Team Goals 205)

5. Devils – A lot of people are predicting Cardiff will break into the top 4, but I just can’t see whom they’ll replace. Defensively they’ll once again be relatively solid and Mark Smith will improve their goalscoring, but I still don’t think they’ll score enough and Lyle won’t give the consistency required. (Team Goals 195)

6. Vipers – If ever a team was nailed on to finish in a particular position it has to be Newcastle and 6th place. Defensively they look far too strong to finish in the bottom two, but offensively they look the weakest team in the league. (Team Goals 165)

7. Capitals – Edinburgh look to be fairly evenly balanced between their forwards and defence, although they look stronger than last season I don’t think they’ve got enough to break out of the bottom two. (Team Goals 175)

8. Stingrays – Hull look to have decent enough forwards, but their defence and netminder look to be easily the poorest in the league and as a result I can’t see anything other than last place. (Team Goals 175)

That’s me banished from the House of Steel!