He wants to hand the club over to another benefactor, who could then confirm former Steelers captain Ron Shudra as player-coach.

Shudra is poised to step in for Neil Abel, who has quit as coach, but who is prepared to help Shudra run the bench at iceSheffield.

Abel said: "With Martin leaving, everything is up in the air at the moment. Scimitars has been very lucky to have a man like him putting his hand in his pocket, but now they are going to have to try and find somebody else, and that won't be easy.

"There are rumours that Steelers or Sheffield International Venues (the sport, leisure and entertainment company running the facility) may take over, but nothing is concrete.

"The club costs at least £150,000 a year to run and that will take some finding, without Martin."

Abel quit as coach because he was fed up of the "back-stabbing and moaning " from fans and internet forum writers.

Meanwhile, Steelers forward Ryan Finnerty has labelled team-mate Jeff Legue as "a special player."

Legue has been re-signed for a further year and Finnerty said: "There are few players in this league with his speed and skills -he is a special player.

"He had a couple of bad injuries but still came through with 22 goals in his first season.

"Jeff has stunning speed, it put rival teams on their guard, they are wary of what he can do. They back off you and that's when you can hurt them. Look at Doug Sheppard's game winner in the play off semi, Jeff picked the puck up in the defensive zone and before you knew it he had set up a chance for Randy Dagenais that Shepp turned in.

"All the guys will be happy that Jeff will be flying down the wing."

What do you think? Post your comments below.

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