Leeds Knights: Matt Haywood happy to pass the baton on to younger team-mates

Leeds Knights go into Saturday’s NIHL National play-off semi-final against Milton Keynes Lightning determined to give the veteran centre one last shot at another winners’ medal in the final that follows 24 hours later.

But whenever the final buzzer on his career arrives, the 34-year-old - who received an emotional send-off last Sunday after his final appearance on home ice at Elland Road - departs a contented man.

One of the biggest takeaways for Haywood from his three years in Leeds will be having watched the younger players around him develop, both on and off the ice.

“These lads came in as fresh-faced 18, 19-year-olds and you forget that they are still only 21, 22 - but the difference in the way they play hockey and how they are away from the rink is just great to see,” said Haywood.

“I was almost retiring before I came down, I’d really fallen out of love with hockey but we decided to give it another go in Leeds and I’m so glad that we did

“When I first got here, it was definitely sink or swim but at that age, the younger guys were quite naive to it all. I’ve hopefully passed the baton to some guys so that they can take it further.

“We had four or five older guys who had been in pressure games before, but the difference now is seeing in those pressure games that a lot of these boys are used to it.

“I remember the first real pressure game was the Cup final in 2023 against Peterborough and you see how badly that went.

“But as a club and as a unit we really learned from that game and we’ve used it to move forward and develop the belief in the players’ abilities and as a group.

“It’s such a great group of guys - I know I can look around the room and realise that even if we’re going to lose, it doesn’t matter as long as we are all here, because we know we’ve got each other's backs and we know we’re all going to work hard and look after each other.”