Ambitious Sam Jones hopes move to Sheffield Steelers can bring GB call-up for IIHF World Championships

The 22-year-old is the only new face to be announced so far by the Steelers for the 2020-21 Elite League campaign, which is still awaiting an official start date because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Walsall-born defenceman impressed in a struggling Fife Flyers line-up last season, despite missing three months through injury as Todd Dutiaume’s team found themselves bottom of the standings when the regular season was prematurely ended because of the deepening Covid-19 crisis.

Jones emigrated to Canada when he was eight before returning to these shores 10 years later in 2016 to make his senior hockey debut at Milton Keynes Lightning in the now-defunct EPL.

A one-season return to Canada followed before he was back in the UK to hook up with Swindon Wildcats from where he made the step up to the Elite League north of the border for the start of the 2019-20 EIHL season.

He is hopeful his performances for the Kirkcaldy-based strugglers will have helped put him on the radar of GB head coach Pete Russell, laying the groundwork for him to force his way into the reckoning once he starts playing under Steelers’ head coach Aaron Fox at FlyDSA Arena.

“I’ve always said that playing for GB is my goal,” said Jones. “This is going back to when I signed in Swindon, I said then that I wanted to be the Elite League within a year or two and I that I also wanted to play for GB.

“I’m hoping it helps being on a bigger team like the Steelers as you get more exposure to that kind of thing.

“But that has to go hand in hand with me coming in and playing how I know I can play and then seeing whether I can make it.

“It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time and especially now with GB being in the top flight of the world championships, that would be something pretty special.

“Last year was more about getting noticed and being considered for it and I think that I did that and that I was on their radar a bit more by the end of the season. But now it is about getting to the point where my goal is to be on that team.”

Steelers last night moved quickly to allay fears among its fanbase that their FlyDSA Arena base would be closing.

The venue is, in fact, being mothballed until a change in circumstances means they can begin operating normally again, prompting the Steelers to state on Twitter: “We can confirm rumours that Sheffield Arena is to close permanently are 100 per cent untrue.’

In a statement, Andrew Snelling, chief executive of Sheffield City Trust, said employees had been written to about the launch of a consultation process which ‘may lead to redundancies’.

“It is not a decision that has been taken lightly but venues that are generating no income will only need a much-reduced workforce to carry out essential maintenance while they are mothballed awaiting a change in circumstances,” said Mr Snelling.