KIERAN BROWN returns for a fifth season with Leeds Knights relishing the growing challenge of maintaining the team’s remarkable run of success.

Having secured the NIHL National title for a third successive year, the pressure on Ryan Aldridge’s team will be even greater from the first puck drop of 2025-26.

Last season proved tougher than ever for Leeds, pushed to the penultimate weekend and eventually only finishing a point clear of Milton Keynes Lightning.

The Lightning would have their revenge in the play-off semi-finals, going on to win the post-season crown at Coventry’s SkyDome Arena. But it is the regular season title that they and everybody else will want come March next year. Put simply, everybody outside of West Yorkshire has probably had enough of Leeds’ monopoly on the crown.

For Brown holding on to their coveted title represents the team’s biggest challenge yet but, after confirming his return for another season to Elland Road, he insisted it is a one he and his team-mates are more than happy to take on.

“It’s the third time now that we’ve won the league,” said Brown. “I like the challenge of everyone wanting to beat us every night, I enjoy the pressure that it brings.

“Last season was so much tougher than the previous two years when winning the league - every night was a battle for us.

“The table shows how close it was for us last year, it went later into the season and we only finished one point clear overall.”

STICKING AROUND: Captain Kieran Brown is looking forward to a fifth season with three-time NIHL National champions Leeds Knights. Picture: Ben Gordon/Knights Media.

On his decision to remain in Leeds, Bradford-born Brown added: “It means more to me with each year that I’m here. It’s as close to home as I’m going to get at this kind of level.

“Ever since I first came here - the way that they have treated me has been unbelievable. It’s definitely got a special place in my heart.”

For head coach Ryan Aldridge, he admitted he found it hard to imagine a Knights team without his captain.

“I’m delighted to have him back,” said Aldridge. “He’s captained us to five trophies in three years, he’s such a big part of our club on and off the ice.

SAME AGAIN PLEASE: Leeds Knights' captain Kieran Brown. Picture: Richard Bland/Knights Media.

“For me, when I think of us as a team, as an organisation, I can’t imagine us without him - it would be a very strange place without him here.

“Whenever you walk in that locker room, you expect Kieran to be there.”

Kieran Brown sticking around to spearhead Leeds Knights' toughest NIHL National challenge yet