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| James Shaw (Photo by Peter Sheffield) |
The Deeside Dragons NIHL2 team have completed their early season roster with the signing of a former senior Dragons player and a number of returnees from last season.
Former Sutton Sting junior James Shaw has played 99 competitive games for
the senior Dragons team over 2 spells spanning from 2017 to last season - with
2 seasons with Nottingham Lions in between - and has some 170 senior games under
his belt in total.
In that time he has scored 75 goals at NIHL level with 47 assists and
120 penalty minutes.
Shaw is also a coach with the Deeside junior sides and was head coach of
the Under 16 team last season.
Talking about joining the Dragons Laidler Division team, Shaw said:
“I'm excited to join our Division 2 team this season to help develop our
younger players coming up to Seniors over the past 2 years. Having coached or
played with many of the younger players on the team, I'm excited to help them
develop on and off the ice.”
“I'm looking forward to a different challenge playing in Division 2
after some valuable years with the Dragons Division 1 team and I hope to use
that experience to further develop as a player.”
Two brothers who made their NIHL debut with the Ducks team last year are
back for another season with the team under its new Dragons name. Mackenzie
Wilkes and Deacon Wilkes both played in 19 games for the Ducks last season, with
Mackenzie picking up 24 penalty minutes.
Also back are Charlie Nicholson, who played in 9 Ducks games scoring 1 goal, and Rafferty
Smith who scored 1+2, also in 9 games.
Nicholson, Smith and Deacon Wilkes will all play for the Deeside Under
19 team as well as the Division 2 Dragons to give them extra ice time and experience
to help with their development.
Two new faces to Deeside this season are Bailey Thomas - a former Manchester
Storm junior who played 27 games in the Moralee Division for Blackburn Hawks last
season – and American born netminder Calvin Taddeo, who has been away from the
game for several years.
The Dragons NIHL2
team face off their new season with home and away challenge matches this weekend
against Bradford Bulldogs before their NIHL Laidler Division campaign gets
under way.
They face the
Bulldogs at home at Deeside Leisure Centre on Saturday 30th August –
face off 5.15 pm – and travel away for the return fixture the next day.
The Deeside Dragon senior
team play their first games the following weekend with home and away friendlies
against Telford Tigers.
