This season our scouting department will be giving an update prior to the start of each game week to give you all the information you need to get your team top of the standings.
Roster Moves
In the build-up to Christmas and New Year the FHL UK scout was hoping for a quiet week, but we have had one of busiest weeks of the season for incomings and outgoings across the Elite League with some signings making more noise than others. Lets work in order the signings were released, so first up is Jonathan Racine who signed with Guildford after spending the last five seasons moving around most of the major European leagues. With so much movement across leagues it is difficult to judge what his production could be in the Elite League but 275 games in the AHL early in his career show his pedigree. He hasn’t broken 10 points in a season since 2020/21 so he has been added at 6.0M.
In Belfast we had one in and one out with Patrick Grasso moving back to the East Coast after not settling in Belfast. His ten GM’s will need to trade him away this week. His replacement is a player with NHL experience in Carsen Twarynski although most of his career has been spent in the AHL. He is added at 8.0M although he may prove to be a key offensive piece on the Belfast team once he has settled in.
Now there hasn’t been a signing which has created so much disharmony within a team but Milan Lucic coming to Fife has done that. The scout is here to value the player so we will do just that, and with 1,177 NHL games we are looking at a player who’s talent we rarely see in the Elite League. However at 37 years old and having played 9 games in the last three seasons we have no idea what we will see. With that he is added at 7.5M to expect some good production but not with the top scorers in the league. With the new signings in Fife it was also announces that Vlastimil Dostálek has left over the last week, so there are 9 GM’s with him in their team at the moment.
Next we have two returnees to the league in Patrick Watling and Daniel Tedesco. Watling is back in Sheffield so we can be pretty sure he will slide back in on the top two lines and be as productive as he was the last few seasons once he is fully fit. He is added in at 9.5M. Tedesco is back with Glasgow, his third different team in the league, but we have seen his production slowly drop each year since his 80 point 2022/23 season in Guildford. He should once again be productive but his value has been slightly dropped to 8.5M.
Finally we have Jordan Power signing for the Blaze to help with the injuries Coventry currently have. Power is in his first full professional season and looks to be a solid defensive addition although the offensive side to his game hasn’t arrived as of yet. He is therefore added at 4.5M.
Who’s Hot?
As we still have a game in Manchester later today, the weekly scores haven’t yet been finalised. Let’s have a look at something a bit different this week and the how the special teams are doing for each of the Elite League teams. Powerplay and Shorthanded points get a boost in our scoring so lets look at each teams current percentages in league play as well as the top scorers.
| Team | Powerplay % | Penalty Kill % | PP Goals | PK Goals |
| Belfast Giants | 28.57 | 71.05 | Jordan Kawaguchi (5) | Nicolas Guay (1) |
| Cardiff Devils | 13.79 | 81.13 | Josh MacDonald/ Joey Martin/Kohen Olischefski (2) | Kohen Olischefski/Brett Ferguson (1) |
| Coventry Blaze | 16.42 | 80.56 | Matthew Gleason/Jere Vertanen (4) | Matthew Gleason (2) |
| Dundee Stars | 27.59 | 56.36 | Matt Berry/Brad Schoonbaert (2) | Spencer Naas (1) |
| Fife Flyers | 19.61 | 78.48 | Ethan Somoza (4) | Keaton Jameson (2) |
| Glasgow Clan | 11.63 | 77.27 | Jason Fram (2) | None |
| Guildford Flames | 24.19 | 75.93 | Mathieu Gosselin/Cole Ully (4) | Josh Nixon/Jamal Watson/Marcus Tesink (1) |
| Manchester Storm | 20.00 | 82.00 | Stephen Johnson/Joe Nardi (3) | None |
| Nottingham Panthers | 25.00 | 85.96 | Ross Armour (5) | Brendan Harris (1) |
| Sheffield Steelers | 31.03 | 93.88 | Stephen Harper (4) | Sam Tremblay/Ryan Tait/Cliff Pu (1) |
Last week we went with Deven Sideroff who was the fifth highest scorer of the week as it currently stands with 32 points. For week 16 we have 8 teams all playing three times so we have plenty of options. However Belfast have two home games and it seems like Scott Conway might have finally found his scoring touch with four goals against Dundee last time out, so we will go with him this week.
Current average points per week so far – 25.63 points.
Latest player scores are available on our site –
To be added next week while Manchester play Dundee on Tuesday night.
Upcoming Schedule
The fixture schedule will be anything but standard over the next few weeks so there is a chance for short/long weeks for teams.
Boxing Day features a full slate of games across the league. Sheffield Steelers are on course to break the EIHL attendance record when they face Nottingham Panthers at the Motorpoint Arena, with faceoff at 4pm. At the same time, a sold-out Vindico Arena awaits as Cardiff Devils host Coventry Blaze. Manchester Storm face Guildford Flames as the first part of their home and home series.
In Scotland, Glasgow Clan welcome Dundee Stars to Braehead Arena as part of their festive series, while Belfast Giants round out the day with a 7pm faceoff at the SSE Arena against Fife Flyers.
Those fixtures are then reversed on 27 December, with the exception of Fife’s home game against Belfast, which takes place on 28 December to close the week.
We then have four more games on the 30th December which make our cut for the current gameweek, so all these teams get three games in the week, whereas Nottingham and Coventry just get two. Belfast start the day with an early 4pm faceoff at home to Glasgow, and we then move to Guildford as they host Cardiff. We finish the day with Sheffield entertaining Manchester and Dundee welcoming Fife.
