Luc-less Raiders as Pierre opts out

In something of a September Deja Vu moment Raiders are saddened that our “NBT” D man, Pierre-Luc Lurette, has decided to accept an opportunity back home, away from playing hockey. We do wish him luck and hope that his chosen career path works out.

With echos of Ryan Shaw, who even made it to the meet the players event last season, this has caused a significant amount of wasted time, effort and money for the team. However, we know that last season this situation opened the door for Matt Gomercic and a very well disguised (at the time) blessing that turned out to be.

Coach Sean Easton has been very quick to agree terms with a suitable replacement for P-LL, but agreeing terms is just part of the process as sponsorship, IHUK approval and Visa documentation all need to be completed. And for our new signing the small matter of a 3 1/2 hour flight across Canada for obtaining witnessed biometric data to enable the Visa process.

From what we have seen do far, this looks to be a repeat of our successful “swap” last season and we believe that our new NBT D man will be very popular with good size and an impressive set of hands on the rush.

We would say we can’t wait to see him in action, but the reality is we have to and we will probably not see him in action till the end of the month, perhaps the Telford/Swindon weekend.

More information of the new man will be revealed in this Saturday’s Match Night Magazine as we take on the Peterborough Phantom’s for the first leg of our pre-season challenge weekend. And that is not the only reason to pick up a copy of the magazine. This will be the first opportunity to get a lucky pre-signed copy and anyone doing so will recieve a £40 voucher to eat at the Liberty Bell, just 100 metres from the Sapphire.

And the Liberty Bell looks set to become the watering hole of choice as players, management and fans are invited to gather after games this season to do the normal things like compliment the refs, moan about the Vevuzelas and praise the latest Jack Cooper goal.

Not long to wait now!