Don’t call it a retirement, call it a comeback
Writer; Stephen Pye
Editor; Stephen Pye @hockeysteve8719
The puck is yet to drop on the season and already knives are out for some teams, as a few fanbases are clamouring, desperately, to put a better team to the sword.
Be it the Cardiff Devils, Fife Flyers or even Belfast Giants. For some, before an anthem is played, a ceremonial puck drop was taken and official game sheets loaded up, the claims that are more like juvenile squawks have already been sounded.
We are nearly here. Hockey season, in the UK. More pertinently, the EIHL 2025/26 season is almost upon us.
So, in typical fashion, there were some movements that went against the grain. Although, to an experienced fan and participant of the sport, especially this league, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.
Going back to August 8th, Glasgow Clan released the statement provided by the then marquee signing of the summer for them, Brady Keeper via his own social media on IG (Instagram).
Simply put, the toll on his body from the injuries he had taken over the years, was just too much and it was time to hang them up. As the club stated, health first, always.
Then, on August 10th, ECHL outfit, South Carolina Stingrays announced they had indeed signed Brady Keeper. No, you cannot make this up.
In an excerpt from the article, with no mention at all of his signing with EIHL’s Clan, they added from Keeper himself;
“I’m really excited to get the opportunity to be a Stingray,” Keeper said. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Stingrays organization from my buddy [Justin] Nachbaur so I’m really excited to get down there, meet everyone and get the season going.”
We do mention quite often that contracts are not worth much and that you should expect the unexpected, but this really wasn’t that unexpected, right?
The only part of it that was unexpected was that he had signed with Clan in the first place. Despite being rated 73OVR on EA Sports’ NHL 25, he came with a LOT of baggage, so much that even the more delirious fans expected him to struggle with the demands of an EIHL season.
In 4 years, he played less than 60 games across any level of pro hockey. Mostly due to his injuries, which were horrific.
For Clan, it would have been at least be 64 games, with half of those stuck in UK traffic or watching home ice melt before their eyes as they are incapable of maintaining a modern rink.
So, the announcement that he was hanging them up made sense. But you just knew, that he would eventually land a deal elsewhere.
And so he did.
However, this isn’t the first time a player has reneged an EIHL deal, seemingly stepped back, then inked a deal elsewhere.
It’s not a retirement, it is a comeback.
Around the same time, another ‘comeback’ was announced, as former Cardiff Devil, Mike McNamee, aka Boston Levi, has returned to the game officially with former EIHL coach and net minder, Matt Ginn of the Atlanta Gladiators.
Since Covid ruined the Devils’ last realistic title charge, McNamee eventually hung up his skates to pursue a music career as Boston Levi after stint with another former EIHL coach, Andrew Lords’ Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
To the amazement of absolutely no one during the offseason, the former team mate of testimonial hero Joey Martin for the Cardiff Devils was part of the cohort of players mucking about for the Goat, which of course featured one of his hit songs as the official track for it.
It was well known within Devils folklore and the fanbase, especially for the ones who have followed for quite some time. Yet, it still drew in some odd ‘did you know’ posts to try and educate social media users. Bizarre and irrelevant but this is the EIHL.
I still remember him serenading the fans during an event in the bar, which we all loved. So seeing him chase that dream and having him on a hard Spotify rotation was a no brainer.
From speaking to him after the event and watching him from the bench, the winners bench for the uninitiated, you just knew he still had it and there was a sense of regret about him speaking of the championship ‘they definitely won’ but were never accredited for.
It seemed personal to those players of that roster. It still is.
So, not one retirement comeback, but two.
With McNamee’s return to pro hockey, would it be unrealistic to see him skate again in Cardiff and put some unfinished business to bed?
A hard skating power forward that can create and score goals. Even before the season has started in the EIHL, that is still a missing element on their roster.
For the season itself, the EIHL ran an AI simulation to determine the standings after 1000 sims. It wasn’t a surprise for how it turned out, especially the top 4 which has been a standard across most predictions.
The result wasn’t too dissimilar to the combined prediction from the podcast hosts themselves as seen below;
The prevailing thought is that out of the playoff places, Stars and Storm would miss out this season, with Fife making it. Against many fan expectations, due to them starting a new and being in a full rebuild after nearly folding last season.
Stars played them in preseason after some set backs in schedules, which actually gave Stars a preseason, instead of a single, over priced game. £20 for the match day and £17 for a stream. For the Stars. utterly baffling. But once again, peak EIHL.
Stars actually struggled to put away plucky Fife Flyers in a full 60, which all but cemented some of those bottom table predictions.
There was a glimmer of light for them to shine this season, their coach, Marc Lefebvre.
He brought hockey back to what it was always meant to be, hard nosed, hostile and unforgiving.
In a post game interview, he spoke openly on what the other club down the road meant to him. He didn’t mince his words and for those that were shocked and were taken aback, this sport absolutely isn’t for you.
Here is a refresh;
Then, to follow it up, once the opposing fans from Fife had their fill (largely accepted and well received) and fans from across the league basked in the genuine remarks or condemned it because the sport certainly isn’t for them, he then taunted the Flyers faithful in a brilliant fashion, by taking a bow on the ice.
Unabashed and totally respected. This was chefs kiss behaviour.
Early candidate for Coach of the Year, despite his team projected (and expected) to finish outside of playoffs.
What a start.
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