The visitors to the Link Centre tonight are the Bristol Pitbulls, this will be the first visit in the league that Bristol will be making to Swindon and the Wildcats will be looking for some revenge after the Pitbulls beat Swindon when we visited them on the 14th October and Bristol won this game 7-3. Bristol were formed in 2009, during their short history the Pitbulls have played in the lower divisions of British ice hockey and their step up this season will be the highest division they will have played in during their existence.
Over the summer head coach Jamie Elson has been tasked with preparing his squad for the challenges that lay ahead this season and he has made a number of headline grabbing signings that indicate that the Pitbulls will be far from pushovers this year.
Starting on the back end, Bristol have signed Will Kerlin as their starting netminder and while young he has had experience at the top level in the UK as well as 3 international tournaments with GB u18s and u20s, his potential is huge and the Pitbulls will be hoping he delivers this season. He is backed up by another young goalie in Tyler Perre who has played previously for the Wildcats.
On the blueline the big signing made was Ed Bradley from Bees IHC, despite playing on a poor Bees team Bradley was selected on the 1st All-Star team in the NIHL National, he scored 43 points in 46 games which is incredible as a defenceman. Bradley will be formidable for the Pitbulls this season and he will be looked to as a defensive leader despite his young age of 21.
Up front Bristol have filled both import slots with Canadian forwards, the first being Owen Sobchak, he’s new to the league having previously played in Canada and the lower leagues in Sweden. While he is unproven in the UK, Sobchak has always scored points wherever he has played which if he can continue then he has a chance of being a top forward in the NIHL this year. The second signing, Nik Coric, joined the Pitbulls part way through the season after the team made the decision to release Alex Roberts from his contract. Coric came through the USports system in Canada and brings with him a similar pedigree to our own Colby Tower, it will be interesting to see how he performs for the Pitbulls throughout the rest of the year.
The final signing made by the Pitbulls that caught the headlines in the NIHL was securing the signature of Adam Harding, he has been a top player in the NIHL for many years and is regularly scoring at over a point per game. Part way through the year Bristol also made another superb signing, they picked up Bayley Harewood after he was released by the Telford Tigers.
The Bristol roster has a lot of young players who will be looking to Harding’s experience as he leads a young team on their maiden season in the UK’s second tier.
