Sheffield Steelers: Aaron Fox backs Elite League to continue its ascendancy

Three and a half years on, he still believes that to be the case, but acknowledges the impact of the pandemic - when no top-flight hockey in the UK took place for over 12 months - has understandably slowed progress.

But as he prepares his Steelers’ roster for the 2022-23 campaign - one which may yet see this weekend’s start delayed in light of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II yesterday and the country entering into a period of national mourning - Fox believes EIHL is in good health and once again improving year on year.

“The league had really built some good momentum in past years and then having that year without hockey - when we just had the Elite Series - made things a little bit more difficult for some of the teams in the league,” said Fox, whose team are scheduled to start their campaign on home ice tomorrow against the Cardiff Devils, 24 hours before what is always a difficult trip to The Spectrum, home of Guildford Flames.

“But I think there’s another new crop of very good players that have come into the league this year, Belfast is playing in the Champions Hockey league again this year which is something that is always very good for the league, so that is a good standard for this league to set and shows this is a quality league.

“And you talk to some of the new guys that came in, they’d heard that it was a very physical, goon-type league and it’s nothing like that, it’s definitely got better as time has gone on here and that is something that will always help attract better quality players.”

It has been a hectic two weeks or so for Fox and his players, cramming five warm-up games into a nine-day period.

Fox is no different to the majority of coaches in believing results matter little during pre-season, his concern more being with seeing evidence of line chemistry and the ability of his players - particularly those new to the league - grasping the expectations upon them.

So far, he likes what he has seen.

“Obviously there are some ups and downs,” he added. “We played five games, but I felt it was important for us because we had 13 new players, so for them to see the Manchester and Coventry buildings ahead of games that actually counted for points - in that respect I felt it was a good exercise for us.

“I felt defensively we got better as the training camp went on, offensively we’ve still got to find our game a little bit here, more so 5-on-5, but I felt special teams were very good in the two weeks without getting a ton of practice in - we got five power play goals in five games.

“The penalty kill we only gave up a 5-on-3 goal, so there was some positive stuff there and it’s about finding the right chemistry now, getting those D pairs dialled in and building from there.”

Injuries were a constant issue last year for the Steelers and it is a theme that has already reared its head, with goaltender Oskar Ostlund out of the line-up after hurting himself during training on Saturday. Otherwise, Fox reports a decent state of health for the rest of his roster.

"Early on, there’s always going to be some niggles that you’re dealing with,” he conceded. “You’re off the ice for four months and then you’re coming back at 110 per cent, you’re always going to have to deal with some stuff, but it’s nothing that will affect us for the weekend.”