Well, it has been an interesting week or 2 off the ice. Telford are continuing to splash their new owners cash, and a mass exodus has occurred down in Slough. But what does this mean for the future of the EPIHL? Well, read on for my thoughts on this subject…
So, lets begin with Telford. Brought back to life, and back to the EPIHL by the foundation of the only Fans Trust in ice hockey, the Tigers have spent most of the past few years being the ‘whipping boys’ of the league. Reliant on home produced youngsters, and low cost imports, the Tigers have arguably been the model for truly sustainable hockey in small or limited markets. As is often the case with teams in their financial position, it hasn’t been uncommon for other, bigger teams to cherry pick their best players, further limiting what success has been available to them.
Well, no longer does that seem to be the case. With a new, wealthy owner, has come a new Tigers. Recent weeks have seen the Tigers raiding other EPIHL sides, plus signing a new import and a former EIHL forward. This has understandably ruffled a few feathers amongst various fanbases. After all, no one wants to lose some of their better players mid season. perhaps the biggest shock in the Tigers shopping spree was the seeming ease in which they prised top Brit Ricky Plant away from high flying Guildford. Ostensibly, being offered the chance to oversee the entire Telford youth system is what swayed Plant to return to his home, however many fans (myself included) feel this isn’t perhaps quite true. As I (and others) see it, Plant could have taken over the youth development and joined the Tigers as a player in the summer. The only reason that the move makes sense is if the Tigers have offered him more money than the Flames were willing to pay. Which certainly is now failing on the part of Plant himself. Anyone in any line of work will quite rightly move jobs if more money is on the table. The issue here seems to be with an alleged agreement between team owners not to ‘poach’ players away during the season unless the player is made available by their contracted club. From what I gather this (along with the other Tigers moves) does not seem to have been what happened. Now, legally, there is nothing wrong with offering a contracted player more money to join your club as long as the player has a contract that allows them to give 2 weeks notice that the intend to leave, which apparently is the standard in the EPIHL (this works both ways, as clubs can also invoke the 2 week clause to gas a player). Morally however, many see this as being unacceptable. Interestingly enough, many Tigers fans who had been on the recieveing end of this treatment and complained about it now seem to be perfectly fine with this approach when it is there club doing the poaching. C’est la vie I guess.
More worryingly for the league is the situation down in Slough. In the past 2 weeks the Jets have shed an alarming number of players, including player/coach Slava Koulikov (who joined Peterborough this past week). Rumour has it that club owner Zoran Kosic wished to impress a pay cut on the Slough roster due to lower than expected crowds, and a desire to take the team out of the EPIHL and into the NIHL for next season. Apparently a number of players were somewhat disgruntled at this, and chose to invoke their 2 week clause and walk. For Slough fans this must be worrying, as there is now a very real possiblity that the Jets may not actually fulfil their fixtures for the remainder of the season. Having been through a similar situation with the Storm, I sympathise with them (even if they are not my favourite bunch of fans). Watching your side slide irrevocably towards oblivion is not somthing I would wish upon anyone.
But where does this leave the EPIHL? Well, Telfords new found largesse will certainly make recruitment far more competetive during the summer. I’d guess they will look to stack their roster with players you would normally expect to see playing for teams such as ourselves, Guildford, and MK. This will likely have a knock on effect of pushing up the demand from both import and top end Brits, which could see teams running with much shorter benches next season. On the plus side, this should make for a more competetive league on ice, with another team becoming viable title contenders.
Slough is a worry though. If as expected they leave the EPIHL, this puts undue pressure on the remaining 9 teams. No league wants to run with an odd number, as it means that every weekend someone must forego their all important home revenue. The only options are to either drop another team by way of a vote (unlikely), or find an NIHL side willing or able to take the step up. Neither option is a ‘good’ one, in my opinion. Any NIHL side who steps up will likely assume the wooden spoon position at least for the first year or 2, and if a team is removed, the bad blood could cause problems further down the line. My preference would be to soldier on for a year and try to get a team into the new Leeds rink for the 2015-2016 season.
Thoughts?