Raiders are pleased to announce another new face to the Spring Cup squad with the signing of 26 year old Liam Stewart who joins with the blessing of Milton Keynes Lightning.
Liam is a Great Britain international who scored 2 goals and an assist in helping Great Britain to the Gold Medal and promotion from Division 1B in 23016/17. He also represented Great Britain Under 20 in the 2013/14 Junior World Championship, scoring two goals and two assists in five appearances.
Liam ended his junior AAA career for the Los Angeles Junior Kings before moving to Spokane Chiefs, based in Washington State, but playing in Canada’s Western Hockey League, where in four seasons, he made 283 appearances, scoring 66 goals and 76 assists for 142 points. At the end of the 2014/15 season, he stepped up a level to make four play off appearances for Quad City Mallards. He stayed in ECHL for the following season scoring one goal and three assists in 15 appearances for Alaska Aces.
Liam moved to Great Britain prior to the 2016/17 season, joining Elite League Coventry Blaze where in 57 league and cup appearances he scored 9 goals and 11 assists for 20 points. He moved to Guildford Flames for the 2017/18 season, where in 39 appearances, he scored 11 goals and 12 assists for 23 points.
Liam, who has dual UK / New Zealand nationality, moved to New Zealand to play for SkyCity Stampede based in Queenstown, where in 19 appearances, he scored 24 goals and 15 assists for 39 points, picking up awards as League top goal scorer in addition to MVP Awards for both League and Finals competitions.
He returned to UK and joined Milton Keynes Lightning where he made 35 appearances in the curtailed 2019/20 season scoring 37 goals and 21 assists for 58 points.
Sean Easton sees Liam as the perfect addition in our circumstances as he explains.
“With Blaho not being able to return from Norway for potentially a short 6 week stint, Liam and Milton Keynes Lightning have kindly agreed to help us bolster our squad in the mini-series.
“After witnessing first-hand what Liam has done to the Raiders in past games, it will be great to have that working for us for this short period.
“Liam again has had a very colourful career and a great pedigree in the game. He is a fast skater on and off the puck, and always a scoring threat on the rush. I always considered the Raiders to be one of the Fastest team in the league and to add to that with Liam I’m sure we will keep teams honest and make them think twice playing over-offensive against us.”
Liam is typical of the players that are all desperate to get back on ice and get playing the game we all miss so very badly since the early shut down in March as he says:-
“How’s it going Raiders fans?
“I’m excited to be joining you guys for the upcoming Spring Series Cup. Hopefully we can put on a good show for those of you watching the live stream from home.
“Wanna say thanks to the Raiders organisation for giving me the chance to play during these times. See you guys soon!”
And we are indeed all looking forward to seeing Liam and the rest of the squad on ice ASAP
Welcome to the Raiders Liam
