This season our scouting department will be giving an update prior to the start of each game week to give you all the information you need to get your team top of the standings.
Roster Moves
We have just the one signing again this week with the return of Philippe Sanche to Dundee after two excellent seasons with them from 2021-23 with the highlight being 61 points in just 48 games in the second season. Injuries have been a problem though in his time in the EIHL with games missed every season. Last season with Glasgow was particularly bad with just 29 games played. If he can stay fit then 8.0M should be good value as he puts up points whenever he plays. We also had confirmation that Artur Gatiyatov has left Fife, so that will leave 19 GM’s needing to make a trade to replace him.
In terms of selections, the race to sign Jake Durflinger continues with another 7 selections over the last week. That now takes him to third overall in selections with 84, when in week 1 it was just 9. As predicted, last weeks top scorer, Steven Seigo, was the most traded player prior to the start of the game week with an additional 12 selections. Coventry’s good form has also meant a number of their players are being traded for with Chase Gresock, Mat Robson and Michael Regush all being brought in by additional 6 teams, then Jakob Stridsberg and Alexander Kuqali by four additional teams.
There will be a few GM’s regretting trading out some players this week. Five players were traded away by six teams and amongst them was Cole Ully who had two goals in Glasgow’s win over Fife, Josh Batch had a goal in Cardiff’s win over Guildford and Daniel Ciampini had two assists in their win over Cardiff.
Who’s Hot?
Going forward we will highlight those players who have hit form over the last few weeks. At the start of the season we had a number of teams who didn’t start playing until week 2 or even week 3, so the points totals over that period were slightly skewed. Lets look at the last four weeks to see who the top scorers are now that all teams have played around the same games over that period.
Over previous years you needed to load your team up with players from teams near the top of the league (Sheffield, Cardiff, Belfast etc) in order to be near the top of the standings. So far this season though the top scorers are coming from a mixture of teams and there is also nobody at 9.0M or over. Our tip, look to spread your roster across all Elite teams and in current form their is no need to grab the highest valued players.
| Drydn Dow | D | Dundee Stars | 8.5M | 135 points |
| Kevin Tansey | D | Sheffield Steelers | 7.5M | 119 points |
| Steven Seigo | D | Glasgow Clan | 7.5M | 110 points |
| Mikko Juusola | F | Sheffield Steelers | 8.5M | 108 points |
| Mat Robson | G | Coventry Blaze | 8.0M | 106 points |
| Deven Sideroff | F | Glasgow Clan | 8.0M | 105 points |
| Alessio Luciani | F | Coventry Blaze | 6.5M | 102 points |
| Chase Gresock | F | Coventry Blaze | 6.5M | 97 points |
| Nick Seitz | F | Coventry Blaze | 5.5M | 94 points |
| Kristoff Kontos | F | Nottingham Panthers | 8.0M | 88 points |
Who’s Not?
In this section we will look at those players performing below their projections based on value and whose form has dropped off. We just looked at the top scoring players of the last four weeks, lets look at a few players who have dropped off their scoring over the last four weeks.
The Fife Flyers have struggled in recent weeks so it makes sense a few of their forwards make this list. Drake Pilon had 40 points over the first four weeks, but has been held scoreless since for his 17 GM’s. Teammate Nikolai Shulga had 33 points over the first four weeks but has also been held scoreless since.
Guilford also haven’t been playing well and Kyle Locke (70 points over first four weeks), Travis Brown (69 points over first four weeks) and Ryan Tait (98 points over first four weeks) have all scored no points from week 5 onwards.
Upcoming Schedule
We start off in Belfast this week in what could be a huge week for the Giants as they play at home three times. First to visit are the Glasgow Clan on Wednesday, followed by Fife on Saturday and Dundee on Sunday. The Clan are on the road all week with visits to Guildford and Coventry on the weekend. There is also plenty of other action on Wednesday with Sheffield hosting Fife, Guildford entertaining Nottingham and Cardiff welcoming Coventry. With all these games early in the week all these teams play three times.
One of the few teams to play just twice are the Manchester Storm whose home game on Friday against the Flames is followed by their trip to Sheffield. Dundee host Coventry on Saturday.
Three games – Belfast, Glasgow, Sheffield, Coventry, Guildford, Fife, Nottingham, Cardiff.
Two games – Manchester, Dundee
This should be a high scoring week with all the games being played so it is vital your captain is playing three times. With Belfast scoring quite a few goals lately and with three home games that may be a sensible option.
