Leeds Knights: Ryan Aldridge welcomes tough opening night at start of hotly-contested 2022-23 NIHL National season

Leeds have been handed home ice advantage at Elland Road over Tommy Watkins’s team on the opening night of the 2022-23 season.

The full schedule for the second tier was revealed at lunchtime on Monday, with a trip to Raiders IHC - who finished bottom in the regular season last time out - completing the weekend for Aldridge and his team.

The addition of Hull Seahawks to the league - with former Knights’ centre Matty Davies overseeing hockey operations as player-coach - means there will be a glut of Yorkshire derbies for fans to wallow in.

Yorkshire opposition comes the Knights’ way for the first time in the shape of a weekend double-header against Sheffield Steeldogs, Greg Wood’s 2021-22 double-winning side visiting Elland Road on Saturday, October 29 before playing host to their White Rose rivals the following evening.

The first showdown with Hull comes on Sunday, November 13 before Aldridge takes his men east along the M62 to visit Hull Arena two weeks’ later.

Leeds return to Hull on Boxing Day before welcoming the Steeldogs the following day. New Year’s Eve takes the Knights to Ice Sheffield before a New Year’s Day showdown on home ice against the Seahawks.

In all, Leeds play their derby rivals six times apiece before bringing the curtain down on their regular season with a double-header against Milton Keynes Lightning, the second of those games being on home ice on Sunday, April 2.

On his team’s opening night tussle on home ice with the defending champions going for a third successive regular season league title, Aldridge said: “Telford are certainly not going to give up that title easily. Tommy is a great coach, (Jason) Silverthorn is back there and he is a massive leader for them off and on the ice.

“Yes, they’ve lost a few players but I’m sure Tommy is doing plenty about that. They will be right up there with everybody else and it will be a tough opening night, but a good one to get off the bat so early in the season for us both.”

There were many observers who felt the addition of two extra teams in the shape of Hull and the Bristol Pitbulls would lead to a weakening of the nine existing teams across the league. But Aldridge believes each team will have strengthened before the first competitive puck drops come mid-September.

"I think the league is going to be strong this year – every game is one to be excited about,” he added. “Bristol are putting together a team that is going to be way better than anybody thought – Jamie (Elson, coach) has done a phenomenal job there in terms of recruiting.

"It’s going to be a solid, strong league from top to bottom, and start to finish. The league has the potential to keep getting better every year. Guys now realise they can stay closer to home and play hockey and earn double the money – so why wouldn’t they?

“That is making teams stronger and as long as every teams in the league remains realistic every year, the league will get stronger.”