Sheffield Steelers begin building for CHL

Needing to build early for the upcoming Champions Hockey league Sheffield Steelers began last week by replacing their retiring british forward, Jason Hewitt, with International defenceman Davey Phillips. He played in the U.S. in the early part of his career in the AHL before returning to the Belfast Giants in Ireland in 2012. Last year he helped the new side Manchester Storm after his original club, Hull Stingrays were forced to step down from top flight ice hockey.

In midweek Sheffield determined their netminding setup by recruiting Latvian netminder Ervins Mustokovs. This was in addition to extending the contract of back up Brad Day for a further year.

It is Mustukovs’ second spell in Sheffield: the first was in 2010 when he set a record eleven shutouts for the EIHL season. He spent last season with Grenoble in the Lique Magnus posting an impressive 92% Goals Against Average. It is no secret that Steelers coach Paul Thompson would have liked to have recruited him last year from Aalborg Pirates but it was not to be.

One day later it was announced that Markus Nilsson would be joining Steelers. He has played solely for Troja-Llungby since 2008 playing over 350 times and scoring 54 goals. He was brought in by assistant coach Jerry Andersson to replace Frederik Vestberg.

To round off the week Colton Fretter, who scored Steelers first ever goal in the CHL last season, returned for another year in Sheffield after completing his degree course in Sheffield. Both he and Paul Thompson will hope that this season will be injury free as he is an important part of the Steelers offensive force.

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