With George Awada now confirmed to be gone for the year and with coach Steve Thornton rumored to be playing hurt temporarily in his place, the Giants have gone out and filled the big void left by George by adding power forward Bobby Robins. The name won’t be unfamiliar to Giants fans considering just last season he scored 29 goals and 64 points in 59 games.

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Rødovre Mighty Bulls of Denmark have signed contracts with Bobby Robins and Paul Deniset. Both were stars on the Giants team last year and leave a huge hole in the forward positions that Thornton must now try and fill. The move comes pretty early in the off-season so Thornton has plenty of time to make the right changes.

The Giants will be without four key players this weekend as Paul Sample and Andrew Martin join Bobby Robins and Paul Deniset in the treatment room. The Giants hit the road to face Cardiff Devils tonight and then a top of the table clash with Sheffield tomorrow. It is going to take one heck of an effort just to get points out of the weekend never mind all four. I don’t really like the term ‘key’ players because at this level were benches are short enough as it is and imports are limited and ice time high then every player is key. Playing without four them them is a nightmare.

People are going to wonder what is wrong; Did we sign injury prone players, is it just severe bad luck or is it the fact that there are so many games with the short benches and players playing big minutes which takes its toll on the body? I tend to wonder if it is the latter because we aren’t the only team in the league having problems with injuries. As import levels go down, the ice time and responsibility on the imports signed goes up.

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I don’t think I ever gave this much mention even though the news has been out there for quite a few weeks. If you are reading this then you probably already know all about the Elite League all-star game but just in case you didn’t know who had been selected the following is the line-ups for both teams.

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The Giants officially announced George Awada as club captain today after coach Steve Thornton had tired a number of players out in the roll to see who fitted best. In the end it came down to a player vote and Awada won the decision by a long shot. It’ll be George’s 4th year as captain of the Belfast Giants and it was a roll I felt was only a matter of time before he got it. Awada has been an excellent leader over his time in Belfast and while at times his points production could be questioned his effort never could.

He is by for the longest serving captain in team history and should the Giants win silverware this season, especially the playoffs, he will be arguably one of the best. Until now only Paul Kruse has captained the Giants to playoff glory.

Bobby Robins, some peoples tip for the captaincy, was awarded an ‘A’ along with Paul Deniset and Mark Morrison. Mo will wear the other ‘A’ on home games with Deniset wearing it on the road. That should keep everyone happy.