Conveyor belt of players continues

The Excel Hull Stingrays will look a very different team when they return to the ice next September for the start of the 2009/2010 season, their forth in the Elite Leauge, and that is not because there will be a fresh, new, albeit rugged, face leading by example as player-coach.

The Rays season-on-season turnover of players has steadily been on the rise during their three seasons in the Elite League under former coach Rick Strachan, and that looks set to continue next season, under Sylvain Cloutier who is expected to retain as few as four of last seasons squad.

Last season the Stingrays signed 11 new players with just six re-signing for a second season with the team. Here are the stats from the Stingrays four post seasons in the Elite League:

05/06->06/07- 9 new players, 8 re-signings
06/07-> 07/08- 9 new players, 8 re-signings
07/08-> 08/09- 11 new players, 6 re-signings
08/09-> 09/10- 2 new player, 2 re-signings (thus far)

With fan favourite Lee Esders and the evergreen Jeff Glowa signed up just 20 days into Cloutier's reign as coach, there are signs that only two more players will re-sign, with the new signings, including Curtis Huppe, beginning to filter through.

Backup netminder Andrew Jazsczyk, Ukrainians Pavel Gomenyk and Konstantin Kalmikov and Lee Mitchell, are amongst the few names that are being seriously linked with a return next term whilst a whole host of last seasons squad including Stuart Kerr, Jason Kostadine and Aaron Wilson are unlikely to return.

It is after the success of Coventry and, more recently, Sheffield, that has sparked an interest in retaining a core of the teams squad. Cardiff and Nottingham have followed suit this season with the early re-signings of large portions of their squads, including of the likes of Brad Voth and Brad Richardson.

It is during the years of success for the Blaze and Steelers that the Stingrays have ploughed on, attempting to re-sign a small core, whilst letting the deadwood, of which there has been plenty, leave stage right. The result? A turnover of more than half of the squad each and every summer and failure followed by failure.

But now, with Cloutier installed as coach, the Stingrays are attempting to replicate the Sheffield and Coventry blueprint. Co-owner Sue Pack said:

"We are trying to build a club going forward and trying to form a group of people to keep together. Teams who are able to retain a core of players tend to be more successful. You think of teams like Sheffield and Coventry who have played together and train three or four times a week.

"Those teams have players who know each other inside out and their plays inside out. That makes for a good product on the ice. They read each other so well, it's a bit like being married."

And it is this post-season that the club plans to implement the 'building for the future' plan.

Although this summer promises to be no different with Cloutier understandably bringing in a fresh approach and new players to implement into a new era for the club, he will sign players with a second year in mind. But a large portion of the retention of next seasons squad, and the teams long term success, relies on the impact of the first season and that is where the coach's biggest obstacle lies.

If the Stingrays were to grasp a playoff berth next term then the squad would subsequently be ravaged by big spending clubs in both the UK and on the continent, with Denmark the current favoured destination for former EIHL players wanting to progress their career.

Likewise, if the season is deemed a failure, then the squad will be swiftly dismantled and rebuilt with just a few core players, again guaranteeing a high turnover of players.

Both options have the same end result, a guarantee of few returning players and a lack of consistency that Sheffield and Coventry have succeeded in reproducing. That will undoubtedly be Sylvain Cloutier's hardest task in his tenure as Stingrays coach.