Sheffield Steelers head coach Aaron Fox discusses his summer recruitment so far with The Yorkshire Post's Phil Harrison as he plans ahead for the 2025-26 Elite League season
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00:00Aaron, thanks for joining us on the West Coast Hockey Talk.
00:11Another two additions to your team today for the 25-26 season.
00:17Two familiar faces in Dominic Cormier and Cole Shudra.
00:21Just talk us through Dominic Cormier first.
00:23I think he was top-scoring D last year, if I remember rightly.
00:26But you've been mildly impressed with him ever since he first came to the club, isn't he?
00:31Partway through the previous season.
00:34Yeah, Dom's been a really good player for us.
00:38You know, skates extremely well, has ran some really good numbers,
00:43also competes hard defensively, plays in all situations.
00:47You know, he's been a big addition to our group since we brought him in here midway through last year.
00:53You know, so it's huge to get him back on a two-year deal.
00:58You know, likes Sheffield, likes playing for the fans.
01:04And he's, you know, going to be great for us.
01:08Particularly pleased with the way that he worked with Euna Huttler, weren't he, I think?
01:11Yeah, I think last year him and Younes played a lot together.
01:17The year before it was him and Tans.
01:19You know, so he's comfortable on the left and the right side, even though he's left-handed.
01:25You know, like I said, he's been, he's put up elite production.
01:29And then his plus-minus has been really good.
01:32He can skate himself out of any real issues.
01:35Great on the power play.
01:37You know, just been a great all-around player for us.
01:39But just moving on to Cole Shudra, his ice time probably dipped slightly, I think, compared to the previous year.
01:46But he's clearly, given what you've said on today's earlier announcement,
01:50he's clearly someone who you think has still got a very bright future with yourselves.
01:55Yeah, I definitely think, you know, Cole's still got his best hockey in front of him.
02:01I know, you know, maybe this year, from a production standpoint, it was a little bit down, you know,
02:08but still fully believe, you know, sometimes confidence is key and king in this business.
02:14And got off to a little bit of a slow start and then maybe fought his game a little bit in the middle part there.
02:20And, you know, sometimes that's all it takes.
02:22But, you know, he'll have a good summer and work really hard.
02:26And I know that he'll put himself in a good position to have some success next year.
02:32Looking at the kind of team that you are looking to put together next year,
02:35are you looking for similar in style-wise, but maybe just changing a few pieces to give it a bit more than the practice?
02:43You know how this business works.
02:45It's, you know, it takes a lot to go right to win in this league, especially.
02:50And we played some pretty good hockey for the majority of the year.
02:55You know, the injury bug hit us pretty hard at some tough moments.
02:58And my style is not going to change a ton, you know, from year to year.
03:05We want to be able to play fast and be aggressive defensively.
03:10You know, there's going to be some changes to our group for sure.
03:14I think we led the league in goals again this year.
03:18You know, so it's not like we lack scoring or, you know, that was a huge issue in our game.
03:25You know, special teams was down this year.
03:27So that's something that we'll refocus on to make sure we can do a better job with our special teams.
03:33And then, you know, we'll kind of go from there.
03:37Long way to go during the closed season.
03:40It's early days, yeah.
03:41But are you encouraged with what you've seen or the calibre that you've seen that's come across your desks so far?
03:47Or is it still too early in that respect?
03:50Yeah, it's still a little bit too early, I think, to, you know, you start getting some lists right now.
03:54But there's a lot of, you know, guys I'm still focused on on our own group here.
04:00We just have finished, you know, we're not even a week out from the season ending and still focusing on some of our own group and exit meetings.
04:10And then we'll refocus and check the market and see what we're missing and make sure that we make some good additions that help us.
04:20Just lastly, on the league itself, it's something we sort of talk about every year, I suppose, really.
04:24But did you feel that the Elite League took another step up in terms of the quality overall?
04:30Definitely.
04:31Top to bottom, 100%.
04:33You know, there's some really good players that came into our league last year.
04:36The depth in our league was really, really good.
04:39You know, I know Fife had a really, really tough year, but again, those, you know, there wasn't a lot of separation from fourth to ninth place in the league.
04:51And then the top three were in it, all in it, you know, till the last weekend of the year as well.
04:55So a ton of parity in our league.
04:57You know, everyone does this full time now from a recruitment coaching standpoint.
05:04Each organization is already on it.
05:06You know, so it's the league's in a great spot.