MAY

Jonathan Phillips was announced as returning for his fifteenth season, fouurteen as captain. He will join returnees David Phillips, Robert Dowd and James Bettauer.

JULY

Steelers went on a signing spree today with seven returnees and a new defenceman to take the place of Ben O'Connor.

They were: Anthony De Luca, Marc Vallerand, Tanner Ebele, Marek Troncinsky, Aaron Johnson, Cole shudra, John Armstrong and Sam Jones - the new defenceman- signed from Fife Flers

SEPTEMBER

After a conference call between all ten clubs unanimously agreed that they cannot commit to a 2020-21 league season starting on December 5th as previously planned, and the season will be suspended.   

Presumably the word SUSPENDED is a slip of the tongue as league chairman Tony Smith stated in a brief message that the clubs could see no way forward at the moment with the proposed December restart. His statement is as follows:

“We’ve been very open that we need to have fans back in our arenas for us to begin playing again. We operate around 75% to 100% capacity at our venues and this is the level of crowds we would need in order to go ahead at any point, which isn’t a realistic option right now.”

"Government compliance along with the safety of our players, officials, staff and fans is paramount to this decision."

“If government guidance and support were to change, some teams may be ready to revise their plans to return to play and would need a minimum of 8 weeks to prepare.”

"We are looking into the possibility of some form of top level ice hockey in the UK potentially taking place in early 2021. This could start in late January or early February and go through into late June, but may not include all teams and again this is dependent on crowds being allowed back inside venues.

“We continue to speak with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and devolved administrations about their plans for the return of fans to arenas that would enable this to happen, but having a full EIHL season starting in 2020 with ten teams is now beyond us, unfortunately.”

Meanwhile, the second tier of ice hockey in the UK (National Ice hockey League) are hoping for a re-start around January time.

JANUARY

Further to the United Kingdom government’s announcement that the Elite League has been included in the Winter Survival Package, talks are progressing about the possibility of when top-flight ice hockey could get back on the ice. This would, however, only include clubs from England as the Scottish parliament is a separate entity. So it would be players from Coventry Blaze, Guildford Flames, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers with Cardiff Devils from Wales being also brought into the fold. Now all this geographical stuff will mean little to people outside of Great Britain but please bear with me. As was communicated on Thursday afternoon, Sport England has allocated £4 million in funding for the Elite League to resume, while the EIHL is working with the remaining five teams to understand what support will be available from the other devolved administrations. (I.e. Scotland and Northern Ireland) “We are looking at dates for a January start as this part of the requirement of the funding” explained league chairman Tony Smith. “Obviously, we still have to be cautious and can't promise anything concrete, as a lot of our planning depends entirely on dealing with different agencies across the UK, but we are drawing up plans now about how we could get back on the ice playing competitive games at the beginning of 2021. “With Great Britain in the elite group of the World Championships, we are time-limited regarding how long we can play until before we need to release national team players for the tournament. Realistically, knowing we need to finish in April means starting as soon as we can to schedule in enough games. He concluded: “Things have moved fast since the UK government’s initial announcement, and we need them to keep doing so over the next fortnight to make sure that we have as long to play as possible."

FEBRUARY

Attempts to start a mini-season of top-tier ice hockey collapsed today after the Elite League admitted the Government's offer of support could ultimately lead clubs into a financial abyss.  The EIHL has been trying to establish for months whether offered Government 'funding' would be in the form of a loan or a grant. Or a mixture of the two. On several occasions, Sheffield Steelers had made it publicly clear that a pure loan would not be a feasible option for them and the remaining English clubs. Nevertheless discussions continued on and off until today, when the EIHL published a statement saying that the much-vaunted lifeline would only be in the form of a loan. Tellingly, the league said the Government proposal could actually kill off the elite hockey status in the UK, if implemented. The EIHL obtained the full details of the so-called 'Winter Survival' package on Monday. They said the proposal had been to "begin season 2020/21 with no fans and government support only in the form of loans. "To start on that basis would threaten the very future of professional ice hockey in the United Kingdom."

MARCH

Then came the welcome news that the Elite League had found a way to make things work and a five week tournament  consisting of four teams would start in April.

Tony Smith explained "The original submissions we put in were turned down flat by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Sport England, they basically said: 'Sorry You are not getting a penny.' We decided not to accept that. I spoke to Richard Caborn who put me on to Clive Betts. "He got (Secretary of State) Oliver Dowden to pick up speed and got them to have a look at a second proposal." After months of wrangling the League finally inked a financial deal which included both grants and loans.   "I think Clive did a massive job for Steelers and the EIHL fans should realise what an important part he played in this" said Smith. "He put in a number of pressing letters to Government ministers and Sport England's CEO Tim Hollingsworth. We wouldn't have got a look-in to be honest without his clout as a MP. "It is important that we reinforce the point that Clive did a lot of that work for us. He did something that we couldn't do.

"Sport England certainly didn't realise we were the largest indoor sport in the country until we started banging the drum. "It was only when Clive gave us that push through the door that they realised we do have some standing in sporting communities and we should be taken seriously, over and above a few other sports."

The five week series went ahead and the Sheffield Steelers came top of the four teams during the round robin section, however, the Nottingham panthers, who had begun slowly, came out on top during the play offs defeating the steelers in a best of three series, by two games to nil. Fans were left asking how was it that an explosive offensive team, that dwarfed all their competitors across a dozen regular League games in scoring, suddenly lost their offensive touch in the two Play Off matches that mattered most? Sheffield Steelers had topped the seeding group with 60 goals in a dozen games, 17 more than the nearest competitor. But in the two win-or-bust Play Off finals against Nottingham Panthers, they managed to hit the back of the net three times in the first game and only twice in the second - losing 3-5 and 2-5 on consecutive nights.