Ones to Watch VS Basingstoke Bison

Wildcats One to Watch – Aaron Nell

Tonight, the Wildcats One to Watch this evening is last season’s top scorer, the club’s 2^nd all-time point scorer, the club’s all-time leader in assists and the clubs head coach Aaron Nell.

Nell made his debut with the Wildcats in the 2008-09 season, it wasn’t long before he impressed enough to get a call-up to the Elite League with the Coventry Blaze. In total Nell played for 4 seasons in the Elite League, his time split between Coventry and Sheffield, during his time he scored 56 points in 134 games.

However, Aaron is best known for his time with our Wildcats team, firstly as a player and then as a coach. Nell first took on the player/coach role in the 2015-16 season after he took over from Stevie Lyle who left his coaching role midseason. There are sometimes questions about when a great player takes on a coaching role, will they maintain the level of play that fans have become used to? With Nell those questions have been totally put to bed as he remains the Wildcats best player. Just one example being scoring 112 points in 65 games across all competitions last season which led the team.

The expectations on Nell coming into this season have been large and he has definitely delivered on those in the scoring charts. After 27 games played he has scored 45 points, including 17 goals, and if he maintains that pace it will lead to a 93 point season, it would be his 3^rd highest ever points total over a season.

Bison One to Watch – Name: Alex Mettam

Tonight’s one to watch is a goalie that has been around the British ice hockey scene for well over a decade and is someone that the Wildcats have faced on numerous occasions. Alex Mettam has been a consistent performer over a number of seasons and the Bison will look to him once more in goal.

Mettam was born in Sheffield and he came up through their junior system before making his senior debuts with the Sheffield Spartans and Sheffield Scimitars in the 2006-07 season when they played in the ENL and EPL respectively.

The following year Mettam was signed up by the Guildford Flames to be their backup goalie for the next two seasons and during these two seasons he totalled 15 games for the Flames. He impressed potential suitors during his time as a backup in Surrey, in 2009 the Milton Keynes Lightning took the chance on Mettam as a starter and from this point on he has not looked back.

For the following 4 seasons Mettam was the starter for the MK Lightning and in each of those 4 years he recorded a save percentage of above 90% and a goals against average of under 3. These numbers were very strong and represented the best period in Mettam’s career.

After 4 years in Milton Keynes Mettam decided to move on, he made his way to Berkshire to play for the Bees in Bracknell. The Bees are probably the club that Mettam is most synonymous with, he spent 5 seasons in Bracknell and despite the teams struggles he was always a good performer for the team and someone who you could always rely on to give any side a solid foundation from which to build upon.

In 2018 Mettam’s tenure in Bracknell came to an end and he joined the Bison, he has remained with Basingstoke to this day and has kept up with his solid if not spectacular performances. That being said on his day he is more than capable of standing on his head and winning his team the game.