The Elite league today announced their intentions for the new season – to clamp down on the clutching and grabbing with a zero tolerance policy. The referees will call every infraction from hooking to holding right by the book and like the NHL done last year the Elite league are hoping it will have a positive impact on the speed of the game and the scoring.

I personally think this is a good move. I do hope however that it wont go from one end of the scale all the way to the other though where we watch 80% of the game as a power play to one team or the other, that’s not what you want. But Jason Ruff said it himself that he was extremely unhappy last season because of the interference he had to fight through to play his game and that the referees where letting everything go.

But with a big ice surface over here and still so much clutching and grabbing going on to slow down players it just proved how much it needed to be changed so well done to the league for addressing it. The league will be holding a clinic for coaches to attend to find out exactly what changes will be brought in so that teams are not completely idol to the new rules come face-off in September.

Another great move putting someone in control of discipline, especially someone who does know the game like Kirkham. Hopefully though he will have the power to monitor the referee’s performances to make sure they are continuing to enforce the new changes for the entire season and be able to hold them accountable for sub-par performances.

It will all be very interesting to see in the first few weeks of the season as teams and players get used to the changes, I can certainly see a lot of bizarre looks towards the referee upon some penalty calls but in the long run this can only be a good thing.

As rumoured a number of weeks ago it now seems certain that Giants backup goalie Nathan Craze will join EPL team the Bracknell Bees for the upcoming season.

A drop in standard yes, but it will certainly see the young up and coming goalie get a lot more ice time than he would have with the Giants. Still he preformed very well when he did get playing for the Giants and I for one would really liked to see us re-sign him. In a league where back-up’s are nearly always young Brits it’s going to be hard for the Giants to find someone else to cover the reserve goalie duties as well as Craze did.

The Daily Mirror and the Giants official website are today reporting that the team have signed defenseman Roman Gavallier, who played with the Giants in 04-05, and young British defenseman Leigh Jamieson who will ice for his forth season as a Giants player.

This is superb news. I know this time last year I was sitting hoping that Roman Gavallier would be soon announced as a re-signing by the Giants. As it turned out that wasn’t the case as the Slovak took his trade to Poland but I’m happy to say that a year on and he’s finally re-signed with us again.

Roman will bring speed and a superb skating ability to the Giants blue-line and should compliment a player like Todd Kelman very well. Leigh Jamieson who is getting better by the year with each year of experience he gains will be an important piece and this season should see him play an even more important role. Look to see him jump into the attack as much as possible like last year.

Ed Courtenay has said that he needs only one more defenseman to complete his defensive group but as yet there are no clues as to who that last man could be.

Ed’s style is very much offence first and you wont hear me complaining about that, I love an attacking brand of hockey, something the Giants have prided themselves on in nearly every year of their existence but it does leave me wondering could big Ed be really thinking about starting the season with just four defensemen? It’s all well and good to play all out attack but you still need a few guys to cover the rear.

With Jamieson, Kelman and Gavallier all having an offensive side to their game it doesn’t leave much in the way of stay-at-home defensemen and certainly doesn’t leave much scope for injuries.

Still there is always the strong possibility that one or two more are already signed but not yet announced to the press. That being the case you would think that Jason Bowen and Shane Johnson are the likely already signed candidates. However, going back to the thought that we could go with just four defensemen and that means one of either Jason Bowen or Shane Johnson are not coming back, or possibly even both of them. That would certainly be the end of an Era.

Certainly losing a guy like Jason Bowen would be huge. His physical presence is as good as anybodies in the Elite League and he is coming off the back of a fine season, possibly his best season as a Giants player. If Ed has a younger, similar version in mind and feels this is the direction he wishes to go then that is fine, but unless it’s a man who can play the Bowen game then not inking the big-man to a new contract may well be an error.

Still until I know for sure that Bowen and even Johnson are not returning I’ll hold off on the “thanks for the good times, boys” talk and keep the belief that at least one of them, especially Bowen, will return.

According to the final paragraph in an article from Belfast Telegraph regarding the return of Todd Kelman to the Belfast Giants for a 7th season, it mentions that other locally based players, including Belfast natives Graeme Walton and Mark Morrison, plus Jason Bowen, Shane Johnson and Curtis Huppe, are all expected to put pen to paper on new contracts with the club in the coming weeks.

I was so happy to hear the news that Killer Kelman was back with the Giants for 7th straight season. Our all-time leader in games played was one of the first guys I would want back on my team after last season. He’s undoubtably the best offensive defenceman in the league right now and has been for the past three years, continually putting up big numbers from the blue-line. Along with Dutiaume and Ruff up forward and now Kelman in defence we’re certainly taking the early steps to building something special here in Belfast for 06-07.
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In other news, the Cardiff Devils have been active this week with the signings of Paul Sample who played for the Giants in 03-04 and last season with Sheffield as well as Dion Darling who played last season in Nottingham.