Why Sheffield Steelers’ coach Aaron Fox remains confident of roster quality for 2020-21 Elite League season - whenever it may start

The EIHL has declared that it will make a decision on September 15 on whether to go ahead with its hoped-for December start, but has left itself open to the possibility of starting as late as February and playing on into late June if necessary.

Whether any kind of season - in whatever format and with however many teams - does even go ahead is wholly dependent on government social distancing rules which, as they currently stand, would need to be significantly eased in order to make it financially viable for clubs to commit to any new campaign.

Steelers’ head coach and GM Fox already has 15 names down on his roster for next season, but admitted in an online Q&A alongside owner Tony Smith with fans on Thursday night that he would understand if players wished to explore other options either in North America or, as is more likely, Europe.

In the past week or so, three other EIHL clubs - Cardiff Devils, Manchester Storm and Glasgow Clan - had already revealed their willingness to help players signed up for next season find alternative employment at clubs in other leagues.

Now the Steelers have joined that group, although Fox is confident that any additional holes he may be left to fill in light of any Steelers’ departures would not prove problematic.

“Some guys have reached out to see if I could make some phone calls to see if there are any jobs available for them,” said Fox. “In a perfect world I would like to loan some guys out for 2-3 months until we start and then get them back.

“But I can’t withhold money from them. If there is a guaranteed deal out there for somebody, then that is something that we’re going to have to live with, there are a couple of guys who have had some conversations with teams, although nothing has been done yet.

“But maybe there is a deal to be done where, if we start later than December, a guy goes and plays somewhere for 3-4 months and then we get them back for our run.

“Maybe they make a little more money because they can go and play somewhere else for 4-5 months and they get four months with us at the back end.”

If some kind of season were to start in February, or even later, Fox said that had to be a better option than having no hockey before the start of the 2021-22 season the following August.

And despite the potential for more leagues in Europe and North America already being in full swing by the early part of next year - quite possibly with some currently signed Steelers’ players on their rosters - Fox, brought in partly by the club on the back of his recruiting reputation, is confident he will still put together a quality line-up.

“I don’t think there will be any issue with finding players,” he added. “I don’t worry at all about finding enough import players. There might be a different limit on imports than we’re accustomed to.

“But if it’s 14 imports, 13 imports, or 10 imports we’ll make a team that is ready to go regardless and put an entertaining team on the ice.”

Fox, who clearly enjoys a close working relationship with Steelers’ owner Smith, acknowledged that even if a season did somehow get the green light early next year, not all of the current 10 EIHL teams would necessarily compete and that he may be required to operate on a lower budget than originally planned for the campaign.

“There might be some clubs that it doesn’t work for starting in February which is fine,” said Fox, who led the Steelers to their first Challenge Cup trophy in 17 years during his first season in charge.

“I’m not going to sit here and say what is best for other clubs or organisations and I’m not going to tell Tony what is best for his team.

“He will tell me what we need to do in February, what that budget needs to look like - if it needs to be slashed to a third then it will be slashed to a third.

“But we will still find good players and will still put a product out on the ice that will keep the fans engaged.

“It was an entertaining year for us last season and we’ll make sure that we can find a way to do that again.”

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Thank you, James Mitchinson. Editor.