Basingstoke Bison has announced the signing of seven players for next season.
Returning to the Herd for a third season is Basingstoke-born netminder Dean Skinns.
The 26-year-old is no stranger to defending the Bison’s net after taking over the number one position last year, icing in 35 games during the 2010/11 season.
Skinns will be joined by English National League netminder Matt Colclough and under-18s Bison player Connor Standing in the netminding core.
Colclough joins the Herd from recent ENL South One League champions the Wightlink Raiders, coached by former Bison player Jeremy Cornish.
Standing will act as the Bison’s third netminder and will have the chance to train with the senior team to gain experience at a higher level.
It is expected that Skinns will resume the number one role when the season gets under way.
A new member to the Herd is 22-year-old Dan Harris from ENL North 1 side the Whiteley Warriors.
The defenceman had a solid season in 2010/11, scoring three goals and collecting four assists for a total of seven points, from 26 starts. He also iced four times for the Newcastle Vipers collecting one assist.
Player and coach Steve Moria has also confirmed that long standing Bison player Tony Redmond will revert to a defensive position when the season resumes in September.
Also announced were the signings of three new forwards.
Craig Tribe has signed from fierce rivals the Bracknell Bees.
A product of Bracknell’s junior side, the Hornets, Tribe competed in his first full EPIHL season last year and collected 22 points from 54 starts, including 10 goals.
Tribe will add valuable experience to the Herd’s forward lines this coming season and will also be joined by Jacob Heron.
The 18-year-old has joined the Herd from the Milton Keynes Lightning. Heron’s hockey career has been fully focused in MK, having played for their under-18s side, the English National League side MK Storm and last season for the EPIHL squad.
In 54 regular season games, Heron scored seven points and 18 penalties.
The last announcement was the signing of Czech Republic forward Daniel Volrab from the Czech 2 side HC Hradec Kralove.
The 28-year-old is no stranger to English hockey having played the majority of his hockey in Europe since 1999.
Volrab was a fourth-round draft pick by the Dallas Stars, of the National Hockey League in America and Canada, during the 2001 season. However, the 6ft 1in forward never got the chance to play in the top league and spent two seasons in the Western Hockey League with the Saskatoon Blades.
The signing of Volrab has put the future of last year’s stars, Ondrej Lauko and Viktor Kubenko, at risk as Moria has only one import slot left to fill on his roster for the 2011/12 season.
Moria now has only two positions left to fill before his squad is complete.
Other players confirmed for Bison are Sam Oakford, Tony Redmond, Marcel Petran, Kurt Reynolds, Ollie Bronnimann, Chris Wiggins, Liam Chong, Nicky Chinn.
