Steve Thornton today spoke to Sky Sports News about his plans for next season. As well as telling them that his new season has already begun he noted that he hopes to retain most of the players from last season though does seem confined to losing star player Paul Deniset to a team in Europe.

Claiming that he wants to keep the majority of players that helped the team win two trophies in his first year as a head-coach was interesting considering General Manager Todd Kelman recently said in an interview that he would like to see an overhaul of the side.

Personally I like the idea of keeping the core. The Giants had quite a huge re-build last summer and while it was the right time to do it then, doing it every year is not productive. You will always lose players but if you can maintain a core then it will certainly help you in the long run. You only have to look at the Giants early years when they were able to keep a core that included guys like Paxton Schulte, Colin Ward, Rod Stevens, Curtis Bowen, Todd Kelman and Shane Johnson and note the success they achieved in them early years.

I’ve heard it said that you should always look to change 15% of your team to keep things fresh and to keep improving and that is ok. The Giants will likely have 15% of their guys who do not want to return anyway, but maintaining a core is key.

Ignore those that say keeping the majority of this team will only mean another forth place finish. Last year seen a lot of new faces and chemestry takes time to build. Not to mention an injury list of a length that I have never seen before in Elite League Hockey. Maintaining a core of players from last season would mean instant chemestry amongst players from the off and the chances of having such an injury plagued season again would be highly unlikely. Add those together and a year of experience for Thornton as coach and you can see why this team could make a lot of noise next year.

Core players to try and lock up for 09-10 (not including Thornton who is already signed on as player-coach): Colin Shields, Paul Deniset, Evan Cheverie, George Awada, Mike Burgoyne, Andrew Martin, Malcolm MacMillan, David Phillips, Shane Johnson.

On the subject: Paul Deniset, Sky Sports, Steve Thornton | ALL SUBJECTS |

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