Sheffield Steelers: Aaron Fox on why No 2 Carter Beston-Will is so vital to team’s hopes of Elite League success

As far as Steelers’ head coach Aaron Fox is concerned, he is an invaluable part of the success the team has enjoyed since the pair first came on board in the summer of 2019.

Ending the club’s 17-year wait for the Challenge Cup was their first achievement in South Yorkshire together, just a few days before the global coronavirus pandemic that stubbornly refuses to go away brought an unwanted end to that particular Elite League campaign.

It would be over a year before the two were able to stand behind the Steelers bench together again in a competitive environment, the behind-closed-doors Elite Series at Nottingham’s National Ice Centre providing a much-needed return to action for all concerned.

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The two first came together during Fox’s time as sporting director at Croatia’s Medvescak Zagreb, the club having recently ended its time in the KHL and moving back to compete in the EBEL. Fox eventually took over as head coach in the 2018-19 season, moving Calgary-born Beston-Will up to be his assistant from his initial appointment in 2017 as the team’s video coach.

The two left the financially-troubled organisation before Christmas, paving the way for them to eventually succeed the ineffectual Tom Barrasso at the Steelers the following year.

In the first season, Beston-Will worked closely with player-assistant coach Aaron Johnson on the D but, since Johnson has remained stateside since lockdown – now working as a team consultant for the Columbus Blue Jackets, where he made 172 of his 291 NHL appearances as a player – the Steelers’ No 2 has stepped up to take sole responsibility for the Steelers’ back-end.

It’s an adjustment Fox was confident his young assistant would be able to pull off.

“There is a reason that I brought him in and there’s a reason that he’s sticking around,” explained Fox, after news that the pair had both signed new three-year deals with the Steelers to keep them at the club until 2025.

“The day-to-day stuff that I don’t have to worry about, the way we run our week, he makes it such a smooth week that way for me. He’s taken over the penalty duties this year, he runs the penalty kill meeting. Aaron Johnson as the player-coach and Carter did it together in that 2019-20 year, with Aaron running the meetings.

“But now, with Aaron moving on, Carson took on that responsibility and he’s done a great job. He runs the ‘D’ on game nights and, again, the work that he puts in during the pre-scout preparation for the two teams that we play on the weekend, he’ll get back to me and then I’ll make that into a presentation to give to the guys on game days.

“There’s just a lot of little things that he manages for me so that I can focus on both sides of it at times.”