Former Sheffield Steelers team-mates sign up to boost Steeldogs’ Spring Cup hopes

Sheffield Steelers’ captain Jonathan Phillips has signed up to be part of the Steeldogs’ roster for the seven-week, behind-closed doors tournament and will be joined by former team-mate Liam Kirk, who is still awaiting the call to return to the OHL with the Peterborough Petes.

The pair will hook up with Ben Lake, Jason Hewitt and Jonathan Kirk, three additions to the Steeldogs’ roster for the Streaming Series, while forward Nathan Salem returns having missed the November games.

For Phillips and Kirk, it will also bring another on-ice reunion in the shape of former Steelers’ team-mate Ben O’Connor.

Head coach Wood said last week that he was determined to remain loyal to the players who had performed so well in the Streaming Series, while still looking to add a couple of new faces if the circumstances were right. In Phillips and Kirk he believes he has done just that.

“I’ve said all along, that to bring guys in to help develop our team further, they had to be really good people first and foremost,” said Wood, who replaced player-coach Ben Morgan in November, having previously been the Steeldogs’ player-coach between 2015-17.

“And in Jonna and Kirky I feel we’ve got two really good professionals, two really good lads who will buy into everything we’re trying to do.

“Their on-ice skills speak for themselves and they are both really good guys in the room.

“With Jon, you look at how long he has been playing at the top level - you don’t stay at that level for that long without being a very good professional

“So for our younger guys and the guys that are coming through he’s going to be such a fantastic role model for them to look up to.”

Phillips will bring a wealth of experience with him to the Dogs’ roster, having spent 14 seasons with the Steelers, 13 of them captain, a leadership role he has also filled for Great Britain.

He spent a brief spell in Germany’s third tier earlier this season, but returned home when it looked likely that the Steelers, along with other EIHL teams, looked likely to stage some kind of tournament.

But those hopes were dashed last week when the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Sport England revealed the allocated £4m worth of funding for Elite League ice hockey announced last November as part of the government’s £300m-plus Winter Survival Package for spectator sports would only be available in the form of loans.

With EIHL team owners understandably unwilling to go into debt to stage the tournament - on top of the revenue they have missed out on since last March - it meant hopes of the proposed four-team mini-series were dashed.

Kirk, of course, will need no introduction to Steeldogs’ fans having made his senior hockey debut under Wood back in January 2016, just days after his 16th birthday.

He was snapped up by Steelers’ head coach Paul Thompson that summer, but took the now defunct English Premier Ice Hockey League by storm the following season when loaned back to the Steeldogs, scoring 45 points, including 20 goals, in just 38 appearances.

The 2017-18 season saw him blossom further under Thompson at the Steelers, before going on to be a seventh-round pick for the Arizona Coyotes in the 2018 NHL Draft.

Like everyone else in the sport, Kirk found his ice time grind to a halt last March as the coronavirus pandemic took hold around the world spending the majority of his time since back at his parents’ Maltby home.

He had a brief spell with Hanhals IF in Sweden’s third tier earlier this season but is now back where it all started for him in the senior game.

“Again, with Liam, he is just such a fantastic kid, with so much talent,” added Wood. “He’ll be another great guy to have in the room.

“He’s waiting for the OHL to start up again and he might have to head back over there during the time that this tournament is on - which we’d obviously be happy for him to do - but we’re just glad to have him on board with us.”

The Steeldogs kickstart their Spring Cup campaign on Saturday at Swindon Wildcats (6.30pm), the two teams facing off against each other again 24 hours later at Ice Sheffield (5pm).

To book your live stream of Sheffield Steeldogs v Swindon Wildcats on Sunday, February 14 (5pm) click HERE

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