Raiders are delighted to welcome back a very popular player amongst the Gold and Blue and in the locker room. His on ice energy and occasional “edge” mean that few are browsing their phones when he doing what he does well. Welcome back to 30 year old Blaho Novak, for a fourth season in the Gold and Blue.
Last season, alongside his successful junior coaching in Norway, Blaho made 44 appearances for Raiders scoring 11 goals and 19 assists for 30 points, including a pair of goals in the Play Off semi final win against Steeldogs and clocked up a career low 46 penalty minutes.
In total Blaho has made 138 appearances for Raiders (ranked 53rd in all time appearances), scoring 58 goals and 69 assists for 127 points (ranked 43rd in all time Raiders scoring).
Blaho was typically up-beat:-
“Yes I’m very happy to play hockey for Raiders for another season!
“Last year’s success was a massive achievement for the club and for me too. Every time I look back to the final game in Coventry, seeing that as a team we were challenging the most dominant and persistent team in the league to the point where they were throwing pucks down our d-zone to get a change of players on ice. But we ended up just 1 goal short; it’s one that will sit there for some time.
“We all know its hard to repeat success such as, but I’m more than confident that we as a club will all do our best to repeat, and even beat the success from last year.
“This league is very competitive, teams with different types of players and budgets, but as everyone could see from last year, in the end its all about hard work, dedication, adaptation and unity. I believe Raiders core have all of these. It will be very tough for any team with any budget to come to Romford next year, that I can promise you now.
“I will be training and playing with the team whenever possible. I might have to skip few games due to my work and travels but I will be around the team for most of the season.
“See you all at the end of summer, have a good one!”
Coach Sean Easton has worked with Blaho for around 16 years
“Blaho was a game changer for Raiders last season. He plays a smart 2 way game.
“With his commitments in coaching we know he won’t be around all the time but when he is Blaho makes us a better team.
“We know that with the limits on players over 25 that we will not be able to dress all those on our squad at the same time. I wanted the team to be deeper this season to cope with the schedule and make sure we can play a high speed game every game, all game.”
With some players not being able to commit to every single game the squad make-up is a good fit for the new rules.
Welcome back Blaho.
