Marco Vallerand eyeing weekend return for Sheffield Steelers

The club has been hit by a landslide of injuries and an anticipated long-term suspension.

Coach Aaron Fox has acted swiftly this week by signing up forward Vojtech Polak.

But Brendan Connolly and Anthony DeLuca are not expected back any time soon, Tanner Eberle is still recuperating, while Adrian Saxrud-Danielsen is the latest on the casualty list.

Every result from now on will need to be seen through the prism of a weakened team, in terms of numbers.

Vallerand admits he finds it difficult to watch Sheffield play knowing they are short-handed.

He is still the club's top points scorer but hasn't played since being hurt in the 1-0 win at Guildford Flames on November 7.

"It is hard to watch a game...especially now we are short-handed," he told The Star.

"It is hard to watch the boys battle so hard, weekend after weekend, and not be able to do anything.

"All I can focus on is my recovery, it's so-far-so-good, so hopefully I will be back soon.

"There is a possibility for this weekend; I have been skating but we'll see I think now I am day-to-day so we'll see how the week goes."

The winger said the catalogue of injuries had been a huge factor across the season, with players having to pick up the slack caused by those missing.

"It has kind of been the story of the year," he said, referring to players having to play extended minutes "It is good to see everybody is getting involved.

"The older guys the younger guys, everybody is getting on board now, we get a lot from them."

Vallerand said it "would have been nice to have participated" in the recent Continental Cup tournament.

He said he'd tried to skate in the morning of the first day in Denmark but it was a "no-go."

"It was hard to see that we did not go through with a 2-1 (win-loss) record" he said.