New Player??

[blaze08]

Just read this on the BIH website. What does everyone think??
(still can't do links so i've just copied and pasted the article!!)

Former Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick Dominic D'Amour could be on his way to the Cassidy Coventry Blaze. D'Amour has recieved offers from Coventry and the Excel Hull Stingrays, however following the Rays capture of Finn Antti Turunen it looks likely that he'll now sign with the Skydome based club.

The Blaze are in the market for a defensive defenceman following Paul Thompson's decision to release Corey LeClair and Jon Coleman's decision to return to mainland Europe.

D'Amour is also believed to have an offer from an International Hockey League club in North America, but BIH understand that his preferred choice at the present time is to return to Europe having spent the 2007-08 season with Fassa in the Italian Serie A.

Having won the bmibaby Elite League title in 2006-07 and 2007-08, the Blaze now find themselves some ten points behind current leaders, the Eurologix Sheffield Steelers. Blaze head coach Thompson hasn't been happy with recent results and is looking to bring in new bodies to kick start Coventry's title challenge.

[Dave]

This would be a great signing, big guy, doesn't mind dropping them and will register decent points in our league and he's just 24, please sign him!

[Claret & Blue Army]

Might he not be the only new player. Rumours were doing the rounds last night (As yet unofficial and unsubstantiated) that Kelman is also on a 2 week notice. Could this rumour be like the one about Perras a couple of weeks back or is there more to it?

[blaze08]

Could be!
I thought that Coleman was stopping as a replacement for LeClair though, has he had any offers from other European teams??

[Claret & Blue Army]

Who knows what offers Coleman has. An offer from another European team though would be far more lucrative than what Blaze could offer due to the lack of money available in the British game- as a result we will always be a feeder league of sorts for players to stop by.

[blaze08]

It just seems a bit strange because he wasn't playing for a team this season before he came to the Blaze was he? Or maybe he just doesn't feel like he is fitting in or at home in England?

[Claret & Blue Army]

I'm guessing England doesn't have the pull as in recent years given that the nation is struggling generally. Also factor in that hockey is little more than a rec sport over here so players aren't going to be comfortably off playing full time whereas overseas the rewards are greater.

[thfnick]

D'Amour looks like the sort of guy that we could do with.

My ECHL buddies have him down as being the real deal who fell off the radar when coming to europe two years back and is slowly starting to make people sit up and notice him again.

When asked how he would compare to Steve Munn (a player he saw regularly at Trenton) one replied - better in every department.

Fingers crossed.

[blaze08]

Jan 11, 2009 16:57:11 GMT 1 Claret & Blue Army said:

I'm guessing England doesn't have the pull as in recent years

Hopefully it won't put him off coming to play here!

He does look like a player that we could benefit from and it can only be a good thing if he does decide to play for the Blaze.

[bexblaze07]

On face off, Thommo said that Coleman was only here to replace our injured players, and that he always knew that Coleman was looking to move to mainland Europe soon.