Cloutier lands his man in Hull

TEAM BUILDING: Sylvain Cloutier is well advanced in terms of pieceing together next season's Hull Stingrays roster. Picture: Arthur Foster.

IT may have taken longer than originally hoped, but Sylvain Cloutier is finally able to unveil defenceman Omar Pacha as a Hull Stingrays player.

News of the 26-year-old’s signing was revealed at a fans’ forum on Wednesday night by Cloutier, where it was also announced that fellow D-man Jeff Smith would be returning for a second season.

Cloutier was cashing Pacha’s signature last summer, but the former Bloomington Blaze man opted to play in France instead, hooking up with Chamonix where he posted 36 points, including eight goals, in 31 games.

“Omar was actually one of my targets last year,” said Cloutier, whose team missed out on the Elite League play-offs 12 months after reaching the semi-final stages in the post-season.

“I like his character, he will log a lot of minutes and he will bring some stability to our powerplay. He led the top French league in scoring for a defenceman. He is very mature and from the feedback I’ve had he is also a good team-mate. He can be our offensive spark, which he has been everywhere he has played.”

After a couple of seasons with Huntsville Havoc in the Southern Professional Hockey League, Pacha moved on to Bloomington in the CHL where he scored 27 points, including eight goals, in 51 games. His switch to Europe brought him further success before Cloutier persuaded him to make the move to East Yorkshire in time for the 2013-14 season.

“Omar has worked his way up through the ranks,” added Cloutier. “No-one gave him a chance and he has had to prove himself. He had a couple of years in the SPHL and also put up some good numbers in the CHL before having a great year in France.”

At this early stage of the summer, Cloutier is further ahead than most Elite League coaches in terms of next season’s roster. One piece of the jigsaw he was happy to slot back in again was 6ft 6in Smith.

Cloutier revealed that Smith, a Calder Cup winner in 2005 with the Philadelphia Phantoms, had actually played injured throughout most of last season.

“It was an easy decision to bring Jeff back and the deal was done in no time,” said Cloutier.

“What a lot of people don’t realise is that Jeff played hurt all last season. He really struggled to get his skates on but he is old school and kept plugging away.”

Pacha and Smith join Cloutier, Jereme Tendler, Ben Bowns, Jason Silverthorn, Matty Davies, Martin Ondrej, Guillaume Doucet, Derek Campbell, Tom Squires, Sam Towner, Scott Robson, Sean Muncy and Bobby Chamberlain on the roster for next season.