SHEFFIELD STEELERS’ head coach Aaron Fox believes the new faces on his team have a clear understanding of the quality of the Elite League after their opening weekend of pre-season brought two defeats at the hand of Cardiff Devils.

Former Steelers’ coach Paul Thompson did the double over his old club by following up Saturday night’s 4-3 win at the Vindico Arena with a 3-1 triumph in Sheffield 24 hours later.

In all, there were 10 players making their Steelers’ debut over the two days, nine of them getting their first-ever taste of UK hockey, while goaltender Lucas Brine has previous experience from his time at Glasgow Clan.

Adam Rockwood, Leevi Teisalla and Dominic Cormier got on the scoresheet in Cardiff - the Steelers enjoying a 3-2 lead going into the third - while Ryan Tait found the net on home ice, although it was too little, too late with the Devils already three goals ahead.

OPENING NIGHT STRIKE: Leevi Teissala opened his Sheffield Steelers' account with a goal in Saturday night's pre-season 4-3 defeat at Cardiff Devils. Picture: Cerys Heslop/Steelers Media.

placeholder image — OPENING NIGHT STRIKE: Leevi Teissala opened his Sheffield Steelers' account with a goal in Saturday night's pre-season 4-3 defeat at Cardiff Devils. Picture: Cerys Heslop/Steelers Media.

In all, though, Fox was satisfied with his players’ efforts, considering they had started their pre-season preparations more than a week behind their EIHL rivals.

“I think the biggest takeaway for me is that it was important for the new guys coming in to understand how good the league is - especially those teams at the top (like Cardiff) that we know are going to be chasing trophies down the stretch,” said Fox.

“That was a good benchmark for them.

“Some guys on our team haven't played a game in five months, so there was always going to be some puck rust that way.

NEW CHALLENGE: Lucas Brine impressed during his first weekend of action with Sheffield Steelers. Picture: Cerys Heslop/Steelers Media.

“Things looked like they were coming a little faster at times, but that's training camp. We'll take it for what it is. We'll build off it and grind the guys next week, put some more information through them.

“Our main goal right now is just to be healthy and playing as close to 100 percent in 10 days, two weeks.”

British goalie Lucas Brine saw plenty of action over the two games - as did first-choice goalie Matt Greenfield - impressing his new boss following his summer switch from Glasgow Clan.

“I thought he played well,” added Fox. “I don't think - maybe the rebound (on Saturday) on the second goal - but that's nitpicking - that high-traffic area that goes off two sticks and I thought he made some really good saves.

“What I really liked about him was his stick play. When he's come out of the net, he's made some good reads and decisions on the puck there as well.

“He's impressed me over the weekend for sure - he makes the saves that you need starting-calibre goalies in this league to make and I think he gave up three this weekend and Greener gave up four - but it was a good weekend for both goalies.”

Steelers have one final weekend of pre-season action before the 2026-27 campaign starts for real on September 12 when Coventry Blaze visit the Utilita Arena in the Challenge Cup group game.

Ahead of this weekend’s back-to-back warm-up games against Manchester Storm, Fox added: “We'll skate early on Tuesday because we have a little bit of a team building golf day planned for the guys.. And then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, there'll be some heavy skates.

“We only touched the power play last Friday, didn't even talk about it until Friday when we just went through a couple of concepts.

“But I thought it looked good both nights, even though we only had the one power play.

“We had three units going, so I think, not everyone even got a chance on it yet with the only two opportunities, so there's a lot for us to get through and work through still structure-wise - but we'll get there.”