Sheffield Steelers: The pressure of being a 'short-term' Steeler, by Andreas Valdix

The 36-year-old Swedish forward, who played for Sheffield for two years from 2016, has been icing for Steelers as injury cover on a short-term deal.

With coach Aaron Fox exploring his options for two new players to fill in for roster absentees, Valdix is having to wait to discover whether he will get the nod to carry on.

Valdix, who lives in Sheffield, has let nobody down in his appearances in the Continental Cup in Denmark and last weekend's domestic duels with Nottingham Panthers and Guildford Flames.

Asked about his position at the table-topping club, the skater said: "I don't know, we will see after this week, with all the things that are happening.

"It is hard because you never know, you can never settle down and you feel like you have that extra pressure all the time.

"It's like every game is super-important.

"So it is a bit hard, but because I know some of the (Steeler) guys from before it makes it a little bit easier to come in here and play and so far it's been good."

Valdix's last spell with Sheffield saw him playing alongside players of the calibre of Ben O'Connor, Mark Matheson, Mathieu Roy, Colton Fretter and Zack Fitzgerald.

This year's crop feels "quite similar."

He said: "There are a lot of skilled guys, right now we have only three lines. At that time I think we had almost four lines all the time, they're both good teams."

Now he added: "It seems like it's a nice group of guys, it has been easy to get in and feels good."

The class of 2018 featured the two Phillips (Jonathan and Davey) Robert Dowd and John Armstrong, who were "even better, maybe" in the current set-up.

After leaving Sheffield, Valdix had a season at Milton Keynes Lightning before playing in Romania and then, briefly, a cameo role at Cardiff Devils.

The Romanian experience had been: "much better than I'd thought, the biggest difference was that they had two really good lines then others had young Romanians and Hungarians.

"It is better in this league but they have really good hockey players there, it was fun to play."

Valdix had seven games with Cardiff, but was there enough opportunity to prove himself there?

"I don't know, I think from the beginning I knew I was just an extra until the (injured) guys came back. I had four or five shifts a game.

"So it was a bit hard to show, but at the same time I just tried to do my best."

If Valdix is still in the Sheffield line up this coming weekend, he will re-acquaint himself with the Welsh roster; Steelers play there on Saturday before hosting Dundee Stars on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Fox has commended the "awesome effort" shown by his undermanned team in Sunday's 3-1 win at Guildford Flames, as the team deals with "injuries and some stuff as an organisation" - the latter a reference to the drugs suspension of Anthony DeLuca.

"I love the effort, loved the fight," he said.