I do love Phoenix announcement day and Tuesday was no different!
On Tuesday it was announced that Phoenix have signed Martin Cingel after 9 seasons with the Edinburgh Capitals. The 35 year old from Slovakia counts towards our quota of imports and joins fellow Slovakian, Ladislav Harabin for import signings for this season.
The Capitals are in the EIHL and I have therefore never seen him play so I will let the statistics speak for themselves! Cingel has scored a total of 207 goals and 250 assists in his time at Edinburgh and during a difficult season still managed to amass a point a game.
Tony Hand has played with Cingel before in 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 seasons at Edinburgh and obviously knows what he is capable of. I can see them playing on the same line together next season and racking up the points. Tony has said that he wanted to bring experience into the team and Cingel will bring this. I'm very excited to see what Tony and Cingel can do together and I think it has the makings of an epic scoring line!
It was also announced that the legend that is Stephen Fone is returning for another season with Phoenix. Fone has been a solid first choice net minder and had the 6th best save percentage in the league at .907 for last season. There were some standing ovations last season from the fans for some unbelievable saves, so there is no surprise that Tony Hand wanted to re-sign him.
Fone burst onto the ice hockey scene at 18 years old and was snapped up by Coventry Blaze as their back up net minder. He first played for Phoenix on loan from Coventry Blaze in the 2007-2009 season and started 3 games for the injured Scott Fankhouser. He was signed by Phoenix as our starting net minder for the 2009-2010 season and has been with us ever since. The 23 year old from Rotherham is returning for his third term with Phoenix and Tony Hand has said that he was one of the first on his list to be re-signed and is probably the best net minder in the league at the moment.
I'm very happy that Fone has re-signed with us, he always gives 110% and stands on his head in net for us. I have no doubt that he is going to do a great job next season and I am looking forward to seeing the "Foney roll" again!
In other news (there is quite a bit!) Adam Summerfield has left Phoenix to pursue a career in the RAF, Summerfield has been a consistant back up net minder and always stepped up to the mark when Fone was injured. I wish him the best of luck and would like to thank him for the rare occasions when he got to play. Hopefully Tony Hand will be able to find a replacement who is just as good.
Joe Miller has also left Phoenix and joined the Basingstoke Bison. Miller joined Phoenix late last season as a replacement for Dean Holland who left early on in the season. Miller helped fill the gap but never really seemed to shine scoring only 4 goals in 17 games. I wish him luck at Basingstoke and fingers crossed he doesn't score too many goals against us next season.
Neil Morris has confirmed that Phoenix are looking for an enforcer who can play hockey as well as throw a few punches when needed (doesn't look good for Sharpie returning then!) This is going to be a difficult task as this position needs to be filled by someone who can contribute to the team, maybe score a few goals every now and again and be a threat to the opposition, but not to be so good that we will miss him on the ice when he has dropped his gloves and is stuck in the penalty box for 2+ minutes. I do think that we need an enforcer that is able to skate and not to be sat on the bench for most of the games but I think we will struggle to fill this spot especially with someone who is willing to fight Payette!
Watch this space for more signing news on 21 June 2011!
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