Sheffield Steelers new signing Sam Jones on how he wishes Ben O'Connor was staying with club

Jones, aged 22, is hoping to make an impact in the EIHL after leaving bottom club Fife Flyers for Challenge Cup winners Sheffield.

His signing was made public just hours after the South Yorkshire club announced that O'Connor, nine years his senior, was moving on.

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Jones had been looking forward to skating for a team in which O'Connor had played 380 times for, scoring 66 goals and 251 assists.

He told The Star: "Ben has a ton of experience in the UK and other leagues over in Europe.

"I had been excited to have the opportunity to learn from him and see more of how he played on his team.

"Putting up numbers like he has doesn’t happen by accident so I do wish I could’ve been on the same team as him."

Jones, who iced 24 times for Fife last term, added: "I don’t look at myself as a replacement for him.

"All I’m focused on is stepping in and playing like I know I can and doing what I can to make the team successful and help win another trophy."

Meanwhile, O'Connor is hoping to emulate players like Mark Matheson, who departed from the club in 2019.

The Great Britain regular said: "There are players who have left Sheffield and done well, Mark was arguably Nottingham Panthers' best player last season.

"Now, I have to do the same sort of thing. Look at what Luke Ferrara has achieved - although I don't know about being the league's top scorer!"

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Looking back, O'Connor says his best experience at Sheffield probably came around five or six years ago when he iced alongside title-winning players such as Dustin Kohn,

Mathieu Roy, Colton Fretter, Gord Baldwin, Michael Forney, Darrell Hay and goalie Frank Doyle.

"It was a lot of fun for a younger guy like me being part of a group with that mentality. It was old school; they knew how to win."

O'Connor says he'd discovered Steelers had 'signed' Jones, from Fife Flyers, "late on in the season" - so had a hunch his days were numbered.

Meanwhile Matheson has quit Nottingham for Gyergyói HK in Romania.