Have Sheffield Steelers signed a replacement for Marco Vallerand?

Aaron Fox, the coach, has already announced the arrivals of Scott Allen, Jordan McLaughlin (two-way), Niklas Nevalainen, Adam Raška, Matt Petgrave, and Mason Mitchell.

But the club has been looking for a new forward to replace the goals that Marco Vallerand supplied before he signed for HK Olimpija Ljubljana.

A club source hinted: "Aaron is pleased with all his signings to date, but I think him bagging this final forward has given him the most pleasure.”

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That should whet the appetite of fans ahead of the ultimate announcement.

Brendan Connolly, a returnee to the roster, does not seek to minimise the loss of Vallerand from the squad.

"He is a big loss for sure, any time you lose a natural goalscorer who puts the puck in the net for you there is a void to fill and he will be missed.

"He was a big fan favourite, so that will sting; a good guy to have in the locker room too.

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"But at the end of the day, Foxy has a large reach in terms of players he can get from all different countries and all different leagues and I think it will be more of a depth roster and we will do a lot more scoring by committee."

Connolly was always impressed by Vallerand's aggressive streak.

"He plays with a chip of shoulder. He played in the East Coast League where you have to stick up for yourself and you have to play a hard game otherwise guys are going to walk all over you.

"He is the type of player who always plays pretty close to the edge and is not afraid to stick up for himself and get in front of the net and do the pushing and shoving so that is probably why you saw he was the forward with the most penalty minutes last season."