Deeside's Dan Fadejevs (Photo by Lewis Cleveland)
A trio of young Deeside Dragons players had the chance to play some NIHL
National Division hockey at the weekend as guest players with the Milton Keynes
Lightning team.
Rhys Edwards, Dan Fadejevs and Bailey Thomas all lined up for the Buckinghamshire
club in their home game against Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday.
League rules allow for players under the age 23 to “play up” for other
teams in a different league to their own in order to give them extra match experience
and help with their development. With their young players getting experience of
playing a higher level of hockey, this will - obviously - have knock on benefits for the
Dragons as well.
Rhys Edwards already had a lot of National League experience as he made
a number of appearances for the Hull Seahawks during the 2023/24 season when he
was a Widnes Wild player and 2024/25 when he was based on Humberside and
alternated between the Division 1 Jets and the Seahawks.
Saturday, however, saw debuts at that level for both Fadejevs and Thomas
who are both Deeside Under 19 players but also regularly turn out for the senior
Dragons team in the Moralee Division.
The game finished 3-3 after regulation time and had to be decided by a
penalty shoot-out, which was won by Sheffield.
