Vally's socially-distanced welcome to new Steeler

The club has had many fine offensive defencemen over the years - players like Ron Shudra, Rod Sarich, Shayne McCosh and Ben O'Connor.

And Beaudry could be in that mould.

Vallerand, himself, won't be taking part in the EIHL tournament which starts on Saturday as he had already committed to the play off series with HK Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia.

But he'll be keeping an eye out for Steelers' results and the form of his old buddy.

"Beauds is such a great skater he makes it look so easy to go up and down the ice" said Vallerand.

"You can rarely say something like that about a Defenceman but he can play a 200-foot game.

"He’s not scared to jump into the action so his D partner and forwards have to be aware of that!

"But he’s an excellent skater which is able to read the offensive game very well. He’ll find openings and get scoring chances a lot.

"He owns a great shot too which makes him a good offensive threat."

Vallerand is pleased he made the switch from Eppan, Italy to Ljubljana.

"I got acclimated quickly here," he said. "The wind of change was a good benefit for me."

Meanwhile, Sheffield coach Aaron Fox has commended the experience being shown by new signing Matthew Myers during this week's training sessions.

He said: "Matthew took five of the younger guys out on the ice before we started and took them through some drills.

"Having that leadership role in our locker room is great. It's good for the younger players, and for me as a coach to see what type of senior players I have on this team.

"Matthew is a guy who wants to win. He does all the little things right, plays physically, wins faceoffs, kills penalties - these are the types of players you want to have on your hockey team. From my perspective as a coach, the things he has achieved in Cardiff haven't gone unnoticed and I appreciate what he brings."

*Steelers have three goalies, seven defencemen, and 13 forwards on their books for the series.

The defensive corps has three right handers, four left. The forwards have seven lefties and six righties.

The age ranges from 18 (Alex Graham) to 38 (Jonathan Phillips) giving an average of 27.8 in years.

The team's average height is 6ft 1ins.