The 22 year old, who joined the Stingrays from Basingstoke in the summer having registered an impressive 17 goals and 40 points in 62 EIHL games last season, began the season on Sylvain Cloutier's top two lines and started positively, quickly reaching the eight assist mark.
However, the re-emergence of Lee Esders and the emergence of Matty Davies as a force in the Elite League limited his chances in recent weeks with the Brit playing very few shifts in the Stingrays double win last weekend.
Indeed, his limited chances were for good reason with just one goal to show for his efforts in 37 Elite League fixtures and with that solitary goal coming within the last month when his ice time had already severely deteriorated in comparison to the beginning of the season.
The lack of ice time in Hull took its toll on him and he is now set to sign for Steve Moria for a return to Basingstoke.
Thompson becomes the sixth player to leave the Stingrays this season and his release comes just a week after Swedish netminder Tommy Sandahl was shown the door by coach Cloutier. He will be joining Slava Koulikov in the EPL, where the Russian born Brit has eight goals and 14 assists in 15 games with the Slough Jets, who he joined in late October
Cloutier had this to say of the departure of the former Great Britain junior international:
"I've not had any problems with Shaun and I wish him all the best, but I was hoping for more points production from him, given he had been playing on our top-two lines earlier in the season."He said he was not happy with the amount of ice time he was now getting, but I've been through it, every guy goes through it, at some stage, but you just keep working and then take your chance to prove you deserve a bigger role. Unfortunately, I was not going to play him ahead of Lee and Matt."
