The dust has well and truly settled on the 2012/13 EPL season, a season that many Phoenix fans will remember forever. The year the Phoenix broke their finals hoodoo. Many a fan are now able to relive those moments through the finals DVD which, im sure, every Phoenix fan ordered, haha! Big shout out to Graham Bell and friend who provided excellent commentary for the full weekend too. Their Bison bias wasn't too bad for the second semi final! ;-p
Anyway, all 10 EPL clubs have moved on and are in the process of their summer recruitment. The Phoenix, usually, are slow off the mark but this week saw the Phoenix roster begin to take shape. It was quite the announcement too!
Forward - Frantisek Bakrlik
This is a guy @pullthegoalie1 is in love with, probably his second man crush after Declan Ryan! For the 12/13 season, in the games at the Ice Dome, I don't remember him doing anything special. Much to ridicule on the podcast. Hey, im a fan, what do I know! For someone who 'wasn't all that' his still scored 82 points off 53 games. So the talent is their, along with toughness, 161 PIMS last year. A tough forward who can score points, 82 points at Slough, imagine how many he can get on a line with Tony Hand? Bakrlik is the sort of power forward the Phoenix have not had since Kristofferson, the last time we had a power forward? We won the league! So reasons to be hopeful with Bakrlik coming in!
.....and the big one......
Forward - Michal Psurny
'Who's that man from Czech republic......' credit to @cheif41 for the chant! A massive, massive player to come back for the Phoenix. He joins a select band of imports how have been re-signed for another season. Psurny seemed very cool and reserved during the season but really came alive in the playoff push. Psurny ended the season with, by far, his best point production. 89 points from 52 games, if we could get him back it would have been mad not too! Psurny is well loved by the fans and, from his interview, sounded like he loved the Phoenix too. Any time where a player wants to come back you know you have a winner.
So an excellent start to the recruitment for the Phoenix. Some will point to possible second season syndrome for both players. If second season syndrome means they will only produce what they did last season i'll be happy. That's two 80-90 point scorers for the Phoenix! Me? I think they will do better. If they are paired with Hand on the top line they could both push to 90+ points. If Hand moves down to the second line, each will still do 80 points!
Great start to the summer hey, Phoenix fans?
Phoenix Linky
