Ones To Watch – VS Sheffield Steeldogs 14th January

Wildcats One to Watch – Renny Marr

The one to watch for our Wildcats this evening is our starting goalie Renny Marr, born in Scotland Marr began his hockey career in Kirkaldy and came up through the junior system. He made his senior debut with the Kirkaldy Kestrels in the SNL during the 2013/14 season when he was only 16, during this season he played 13 games and returned an impressive save percentage of 93.5%.

The following season he was once more playing in the SNL with Kirkaldy and this season also saw Marr make his international debut for Great Britain U-18s, he had a great tournament with statistics of a 2.02 GAA and a 92.0% save percentage. This form earned him the call up to the Elite League and Marr moved south to take up a position as backup for the Coventry Blaze.

During his time with the Blaze, 2 seasons, Marr found starts hard to comes by, he managed 4 in his first year and 7 in his second. In these starts he average 4.5 goals against and a save percentage of 85%. During the second season Marr was called up to represent Great Britain U-20s and in the tournament he posted a GAA of 3.53 and a save percentage of 90.3%.

It was after these two years that Marr was offered the chance of a starters job with the Wildcats. He joined just after the Wildcats had dropped down to the NIHL1 after the collapse of the EPL in 2017 and he has been with the Wildcats ever since.

In his years with the Wildcats Marr has been a standout performer and established himself as one of the very best netminders in the league and Swindon are very lucky to have him in net each night.

Steeldogs One to Watch – Alex Graham

Tonight’s one to watch is a British forward with all the potential in the world, Alex Graham, he has been playing senior hockey with the various Sheffield teams since he was just 16 years old. Born in Sheffield he came up through the Bradford junior system before making the switch to Sheffield make his senior debut.

At the age of just 16 Graham made his debut for the Steeldogs who were playing in NIHL 1 at the time which was then the second tier of British ice hockey. In his first season with the team, he played in 13 games and scored 13 points which included 7 goals, for someone so young this was mightily impressive.

The following season the NIHL National was formed and Graham split his time between the Steeldogs in the new league and the Sheffield Steelers in the Elite League. He spent the majority of his time with the Steeldogs and scored an impressive 52 points in only 38 games, including 21 goals, this gave him a point per game of 1.4. In his games with the Steelers Graham found things much tougher but remember he wasn’t yet 18, in the 2019-20 season he played 8 games and scored a solitary goal.

During the pandemic interrupted season of 2020-21 Graham played with the Sheffield Steelers in the EIHL Streaming Series, he played 16 games in this series and scored 1 goal. With the resumption of play in front of crowds for the 2021-22 season Graham signed a two-way deal between the Sheffield Steelers and Sheffield Steeldogs. Throughout this year he has split his time fairly evenly between the two, in 20 games for the Steeldogs Graham has scored 30 points and with his 21 games with the Steelers he has scored 5 points.

It is worth noting that Graham has also enjoyed a stellar junior career with Great Britain, in the 5 games he played with GB u-18s Graham scored 7 points. As things stand, he has played in two tournaments with GB u-20s. In these two tournaments Graham has played 10 games and scored 13 points. Throughout his whole junior international career Graham has scored at over a point per game.

So far this season with the Steeldogs Graham has had a stellar season, he’s played in 16 games and during those games he’s recorded 30 points including 16 goals. Scoring at just shy of 2 points per game is no mean feat in such a competitive league and his offensive output will be key for Sheffield tonight and for the rest of the season.