It has been one of the most high octane off-seasons in recent years for the EIHL, with early announcements from Steelers and Clan, to the steady stream of updates, movements and retained stars.
The best part has been the newly dubbed ‘Clubmins’, who have been at their creative best, with some whimsical and underhanded tomfoolery to boot. Bravo to all, even the ones who might be inspired by… others work.
Most clubs are almost ready in terms of full squad updates, with Giants recruited at 25 for the season, the Devils have recently completed their 22 man roster, with the announcement thanking their player for re-signing.
(22 – also, the baseline squad number) Currently, Blaze are needing goalies and Stars are only a couple of signings away from a full starting group, with Fife almost ready as well.
The teams with the most to update are of course Blaze, as well as Panthers, with just 16 and 17 announced currently, with the latter likely needing at least one more blue liner.
What has been the biggest and most noticeable trends, have been the departures to Ligue Magnus (France) and the influx from Finland (Liiga, Mestis).
Each team has a Scandinavian presence in their line up aside from Blaze and Flames, with more to be announced, that may change in the coming weeks.
With about less than a month until pre-season and training camps begin, the final flourish is upon us, signalling the end of summer and the start of the best season.
Hockey Season.
Intricacies
There have also been some big intra-league movements too, most notably Mat Robson from Blaze to Panthers, as well as Ross Armour from Panthers to Clan and recently, Brett Perlini from Devils to Blaze.
As mentioned, the increase of Finnish imports has seen a sizeable jump from the previous season, that had just 6 players from Finland.
It has now more than doubled, to 13, with Clan utilising the most (currently), taking the ‘if you want to win, get a Fin’ mantra to a whole new level.
With 4 additional players from Sweden, there is a massive contingent of players from Scandinavia, let alone other imports brought in from their leagues, such as SHL, Liiga or Mestis.
The shift is likely financial, as imports direct from the ECHL have been lower this season, with many moving on to Europe or opting to go back to north America.
This isn’t just a change of quality and archetype of player – with the north American style being more physical, hard nosed and direct.
It is a change of total locker room culture for many, with players in some cases from the north of Europe playing their first seasons outside their own respective countries.
That will be the biggest test, off ice, for many teams.
On the ice, the status quo will be the new reality of those recruited skaters, from drudging up the ice to forecheck hard, to seamless strides, crossovers and technical finesse.
The biggest question therefore, to encompass both realities, would be adaptability.
Winners vs Losers
As talking points shift from who re-signs, who gets signed and which team has fared the best to worst in their off-season recruitment strategies, they will naturally focus on which players fit where, in their respective teams.
There would be supreme confidence, there would be unabated ignorance and some utterly wild takes. Not to mention, blind faith in most camps.
From asserting that a 4th line grinder being given an increased offensive role means that it will automatically equate to a top line sniper role, to seeing vague clips of players fighting, automatically meaning their new signing is a significant improvement, the belief across the league has now started to focus on how they all stack up against each other,
A few weeks ago, I ran a quick survey to ask responders who they felt had the strongest roster (currently) and the answers were unanimous.
Via Paperform, the platform allowed users an easy experience to select who they thought were those winners vs losers, providing an early snapshot into how some might view the end of season standings in the process.
Data taken from survey via platform.co
First of all, I didn’t select the colours per teams – I just left it as an operational insight to judge whether I wanted to pay for the website tools going forward.
The question asked was simple, rank in order the teams with the best rosters so far this off-season. It was quite damning, but also surprising.
There might be an over inflation for Devils, as most responders, almost 40% were Devils fans. The second most used by supported team was Fife fans, unsurprising due to connections via the EIHL Face-Off podcast.
Even still, there was a consensus that Giants looked the strongest and Flyers looks the weakest, just.
However, look at Clan.
For me, that is the surprising feature, so lets dig deeper.
Of the total responses, fans of the Devils opted strongly in favour of their team being 1st or 2nd, despite Giants’ dominance overall, with Flyers fans more optimistic, ranking their team 6th. Yet, Flyers propped up the table by 0.1 of the vote share.
Despite their own position, Clan fans actually ranked their team higher, around 4th on average, compared to the rest of the survey responders. Pretty harsh. However, as other teams have also ‘weaponed up’, it might balance out.
This could also be a cognitive relation to the previous seasons’ standings – with the only difference being a flip between Panthers and Steelers, which could have been that Steelers fans who responded done so with a 50% increase compared to Panthers responders.
Between them, Panthers fans shown more variance to the top 3 teams (overall) as compared to Steelers, who typically ranked themselves higher (the most amongst all by team).
To add, one of the Panthers responders ranked Steelers 10th in their responses, which gave me a chuckle.
That is the beauty of rivalry, but also the freedom to have fun with an unserious request and task.
It provided a valuable insight, meaning, despite roster changes, rebuilds or heavily retained squads – the consensus feels that last seasons’ campaign, might replicate in the league standings (currently).
How they stack, currently
Beyond the survey, the rosters as explained are nearly done. There are however some key themes, such as Giants improving across the board and Devils largely retaining amidst a risky backdrop of increased costs to fans.
The champions vs strong hopefuls.
Fife has started its rebuild of the rebuild, whilst Stars, recently taken over as well, has also seen a rebuild. Both using the same approach as under Kevin Moore in his first season as Blaze coach.
Clan have mixed up their retained stars with some interesting additions, causing their fans to view their blue line as the strongest for them to date (but certainly not the league).
Meanwhile, Storm, in its new home have added some previous ScoutDeck targets, such as Tim McGauley and Anton Karlsson, formerly of Flyers, who would certainly be a handful and dish some points across for his line mates.
The biggest changes look likely from last seasons’ challenge cup finalists, Panthers and Blaze, as they currently each have less than 18 announced.
Both teams have had major players depart, whilst experiencing retirements. This has forced an issue to replace and upgrade. Blaze would want to improve not just standings, but win a trophy after reaching the CC final last season.
Panthers have won everything under former Blaze coach, Danny Stewart, except the league. So, the stakes are higher than ever before.
Whilst Panthers have captured new GB goalie, Mat Robson from Blaze, his former club are yet to announce a new NM. The only club without a goalie so far.
Pre-season is less than a month away, so fans must be anxious about their situation between the pipes.
The one club that has seemed to weapon up across all areas in terms of like for like, are the Guildford Flames. Acquiring elite goal tending to back up one of the best goalies from last season, as well as signing Cole Sanford.
Adding another former Blaze player, Jordan Power along with former Giant, Karl Boudrias, has provided a succinct blue line blending experience with quality youth.
Then adding another former Blaze player and top forward in 2025/25, Chase Gresock, they have arguably had the best offseason in terms of what was left of their group last season, to now.
He finished 2nd overall for regular season in scoring, so combine with Jack Jacome and Cole Sanford, that is a mouth watering combination.
Final Thoughts
This has been an invigorating off-season, especially as a fan of a club who haven’t changed much in their roster, despite the uncomfortable price increases.
It was like watching your friends have a great time and live those moments through them, knowing how settled your life is in comparison.
There are those in the group who have made strides for self improvement, some have got older, some have gotten younger.
Some might be looking at repeating the same mistakes.
Some might be on the cusp of something great.
Some might feel jealous of seeing top end forwards go to other teams across the league, with only a ‘moneyball’ approach taken for their own.
In a later episode of a power-pod on the EIHL Face-Off podcast, there will be a preview grade to rank the season per team.
For now, here is my take, let me know your thoughts;
It is worth noting this is solely based on current rosters (25.07.26) – Blaze do not have goalies signed/announced. Panthers have haemorrhaged star players and are yet to directly replace or upgrade them, including offensive depth.
Despite the positive rebuilds, the unknown factor rules over the eastern Scottish teams, but they are certainly no pushovers.
With the Flames’ additions, they have the highest potential for improvement, with Devils, Clan and Storm very close in terms of quality and output.
This is by far a final assessment, just how they shape up so far, assessing experience, coaching, Defense, Offense and Goal tending.
Some fans of the Devils might make the case for their blue line and goal tending to move further up – firepower however, is once again, a mitigating factor to not dial them up right now.
Of course, this is all before a puck has even dropped on the new season – who knows exactly how things would pan out, there could be huge upsets, unexpected finishes or, exactly as the survey concluded.
What are your thoughts?
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