While Manchester City rock the footballing world by closing in on the signing of Kaka, the Belfast Giants have shook the hockey world by signing one Jason Rushton. The headline on the Giants official website proclaimed that the Giants had signed a ‘Showman’. Within hours of the announcement the message board on KotG was crammed with posts coming in so fast that the reading eye could hardly keep up. Oh, nothing raises the debating juices quite like a new signing — especially when he comes to play with his fists.

Lets not beat about the bush here, Rushton has not been brought in because of his silky skills and goal scoring ability. He is as close to Theo Fleury as I am to Cristiano Ronaldo. The question is whether the Giants, for the simple reason of adding muscle, really need a pure fighter in place of someone who can put the puck in the net, especially when the team are far from struggling and sit just points off the top spot. After all they recently destroyed Coventry over two games with the current line-up, but GM Todd Kelman sees things differently.

“I’m not going to lie to you, this guy has been brought in to add toughness to our team and to drop the gloves with the other tough guys around the league. We have a very skilled team, and I think we have built a fast, exciting team to watch but if there is one area we might have screwed up, it was not bringing in that special player that gets under the skin of other teams, that entertains the crowd, that gets the people up and out of their seats night in and night out,” said Giants General Manager Todd Kelman.

The decision has fans split. Many fans who do not like the fighting side of the sport are against it, those who don’t mind it feel that replacing a skilled player and messing with team chemestry is not the way to go, while those who like a good fight and feel the team have been pushed around to much this season feel this is the very man who will give our skilled players even more space.

For me it is difficult to say having only seen the Giants play twice in person and once on the Internet this season. In the one game I seen on the internet against the Vipers, resident goon, Andre Payette ran around the ice bullying the Giants players and taking cheap shots. While the Giants won the game, and that is the only thing that matters, how the Giants avoided any injuries that game is beyond me.

With a guy like Rushton on the third line he will keep the opposition honest, especially someone like Payette who is noted for skipping the dirty play when there is a fighter on the opposite side of the rink to him. Of course I would have prefered a guy like Voth but it’s hardly like they are a dime-a-dozen at this time of the season.

The Giants went through a rough patch in December for a number of combined reasons. Firstly they had a host of injuries and it forced Thornton to play players out of position. On frequent occasions the Giants had defencemen playing on the wing to compensate for the lack of forward depth but it left the defence extremely weak considering they have only a handful of imports on the blue-line. The signing of Rushton will allow the team to put the defence together again. Also the Giants top two scoring lines are set and playing well. Rushton will form a formidable checking line with Morrison and MacMillan that a skilled player couldn’t do.

Rushton has been around the block, he rarely spends more than a year at the same team so it would lead you to believe he will not stick around for long but if he can come in, drop the gloves, protect the team and the squad keep winning then the doubters will no doubt be turned.

Another major debating point is who will be let go. It isn’t often changes are made to a team close to the league title fight and in the later stages of two knockout competitions but the Giants will have to release someone once Martin becomes healthy again. As of now Martin will be de-registered but when, and if he is cleared to play and registered then someone will have to leave. Who that is remains to be seen but it hasn’t stopped a healthy debate. Unfortunately having not seen the team enough it would be unfair for me to give a fair analysis.

Rushton’s debut, and a likely scrap, will be on 21st January against Sheffield. I wish him well, welcome him to Belfast and hope he does the job required and most of all the team keep winning.

On the subject: Jason Rushton, Todd Kelman | ALL SUBJECTS |

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