Payette has faith in his Steeldogs

The 35-year-old Ontario-born forward has been a busy man over the summer, re-signing the majority of the roster he inherited midway through last season, while adding some much-needed experience in the five new faces he has brought in.

The Steeldogs, who exited the EPL play-offs at the first hurdle last season, begin their pre-season preparations with a friendly against Elite League outfit the Hull Stingrays at Ice Sheffield on Tuesday night (7.30pm).

Last season’s top-scoring forward Janis Ozolins, from Latvia, is expected arrive in the UK on Tuesday morning in time to play his part in the game, which will see Steeldogs’ highly-rated netminder Ben Bowns go up against the club he has signed a two-way deal with for the forthcoming season.

Bowns played for the Stingrays on Sunday night as they battled to a 2-2 draw at Coventry Blaze, who they had beaten 5-2 at home the previous night in their first pre-season warm-up match.

Next week will see the Steeldogs also have a pre-season workout against neighbours Sheffield Steelers, who they have forged closer links with during the summer, meaning Payette’s players will get two quality workouts before their Roses double-header against Manchester Phoenix on September 17 and 18.

“It’s been a good summer,” said Payette. “Our roster is done and we’ve been working hard both on and off the ice to get ready for the new season.

“Playing Hull gives us an opportunity to see where we are against some quality opposition, and it will be the same against the Steelers next week.

“I managed to bring in every player I wanted to over the summer and I’m optimistic about how things will go this year.

“I want to help my players play at the highest level possible and having these closer links with Elite League clubs enables that, everybody benefits.”

As well as Bowns, 12 other players from last year have returned under Payette, with a handful of new faces bolstering the roster.

Former Steelers’ defenceman Ben Morgan returns to South Yorkshire after spending last year with EPL regular season champions Manchester. He played for the Steel City’s previous EPL representatives, the Sheffield Scimitars, between 2005-09.

He is joined on the blue line by former Hull favourite Pavel Gomeniuk, who also spent the 2010-11 season with Phoenix, with Worksop-born defenceman Thomas Jeffery - who played three Elite League games for the Stingrays last season - arriving from Peterborough Phantoms.

Up front, Sheffield-born centre Greg Wood returns to captain the side after two seasons with Manchester. He left the Scimitars in 2006 and spent two years with Basingstoke Bison in the Elite League before switching to Coventry Blaze for a season in 2008 ahead of his move to the North West.

Forward Ashley Calvert is the other new face, arriving in South Yorkshire having spent most of last season with strugglers Telford, where he contributed 15 points, including eight goals, in 35 games.

Hull arrive in South Yorkshire confident their forthcoming campaign will see them improve on last year’s highest-ever top-flight regular season finish of seventh.

But player-coach Sylvain Cloutier, embarking on his third season in charge in East Yorkshire, has already suffered an injury blow ahead of a league campaign which opens at Belfast Giants on Friday, September 9.

Former Telford forward Jack Watkins, one of 14 new faces to arrive during the summer, is expected to miss the start of the season after sustaining an upper-body injury in Sunday’s draw at Coventry.

“It is a shame he has picked up this injury,” said Cloutier.

“Tommy is a big kid and he was ready to show people he can make the step up. Hopefully we can get him back in the line-up as soon as we can.”

Tickets for Tuesday night’s game against Hull are priced at: adult £9.00; concession £6.50; child £3.50; family £20.00 and can be bought either on the night at Ice Sheffield or online at www.sheffieldsteeldogs.co.uk