Tomorrow night we welcome the Leeds Knights to the Link Centre as the Knights look to close in on the league title. Over the summer Ryan Aldridge took up the head coaching role on a permanent basis after taking over as the interim coach at the back end of last season. Aldridge is well known in Swindon having grown up here, played here and coached both the senior and junior teams in Swindon.
In goal the Knights have one of, if not, the best goalies in the league in Sam Gospel. He has been in between the pipes for Leeds ever since their inception and his abilities give the team a chance to win every single night. The vast majority of netminding responsibility will sit on Gospel’s shoulders this season as he is backed up by young prospect Harrison Walker who at 20 is right at the beginning of his hockey career.
The Knights have followed the trend of bringing in North Americans to fill the import slots this year. First up we have Canadian forward Grant Cooper, he is a point scoring forward who brings with him an impressive CV having competed in the NCAA collegiate system in the USA. Joining him is big Canadian forward Zach Brooks, the 21 year-old has played his way through the junior system in Canada and moving to Leeds is his first foray to this side of the Atlantic.
Grant Cooper lit the NIHL up, so much so that he was snapped up by the Belfast Giants in the Elite League. With the departure of Cooper the Knights moved quickly to sign a replacement, American Jake Witkowski joined up with Leeds in January and so far he is scoring at 2 points a game. With everyone questioning could the Knights cope with the loss of Cooper, Witkowski has proved without a shadow of a doubt, yes they can!
Up front the Knights have a plethora of talented British players to complement the previously mentioned imports. Leading them is club captain Kieran Brown, one of the best players in the league and sure to be one of the Knights top scorers this season. Supporting him is veteran Matt Haywood who joins after many seasons in the Elite with Braehead/Glasgow Clan. The youthful core includes Adam Barnes, Cole Shudra, Mac Howlett and former Wildcat Oli Endicott.
On the blueline the team are led by another former Cat in Sam Zajac, he is the veteran on the blueline supported by a young cast of fellow defencemen. The most notable being Archie Hazeldine, Lewis Baldwin and Jordan Griffin.
Things will be very tough tonight for the Wildcats and they’ll need to be at their very best, we beat the Phantoms last week, can we continue our impressive run tonight?
