Leeds Knights: Sam Zajac expecting even tougher NIHL National season after expansion

The veteran Leeds Knights defenceman is busy preparing for this weekend’s Yorkshire Cup conclusion against Sheffield Steeldogs and Hull Seahawks, but has naturally been keeping an eye on rival rosters over the course of the summer, particularly those of the league’s two new teams.

The 2022-23 season will see the second tier expand to 11 teams, with newcomers the Seahawks joined by the Bristol Pitbulls, elevated from NIHL South One. Knights created several historic firsts during their inaugural campaign last time around and, on Saturday night, were part of another when they were the opposition for Hull’s first-ever game, the two meeting at Elland Road in the Yorkshire Cup.

Leeds won 3-1 - matching the scoreline from their previous night’s win over Steeldogs - and will meet Matty Davies’s new team again when they travel to East Yorkshire this Saturday. But, missing Davies and import forward Emil Svec and Andreas Themar, the Seahawks put up an impressive showing both at Leeds and on home ice the following night when they lost out 5-3 to the Steeldogs.

When news came out that NIHL National would be expanding, there were concerns that the quality would dip across the league as competition for the top players increased. But the rosters put together by both newcomers have impressed across the board, including Zajac, who believes it will lead to an even more competitive season when the puck drops on September 17.

“When they announced the two teams coming in for this season, a lot of people were worried about where these extra 30-40 guys were going to come from,” said the former Glasgow Clan defenceman.

“But it seems to have evened out and balanced out really well across the entire division and I’ve been really impressed with what Bristol and Hull have been able to put together.”

Zajac, of course, has been part of two new dawns for ice hockey in West Yorkshire, last year with the Knights under new owner Steve Nell, but also back in 2019 when player-coach of the ill-fated Leeds Chiefs.

Starting behind all their NIHL National rivals, Zajac found it tough putting together a competitive roster, one he found difficult to keep together at times when combined with all the off-ice issues that followed once the season got under way, not least the team not having any home ice on which to practise or host games.

“I know from first-hand experience it’s not an easy thing,” added Zajac. “That first year in the league, when I was running the Chiefs, was really tough. But both Hull and Bristol have done really well and I’m expecting them to be really good, competitive games when we meet them in the season proper.

“And I think everybody else, if they’ve not got better, have at least maintained the quality they had last year, I don’t see any big holes in any rosters around the league anywhere and last year showed that any team could prove competitive on any night and that will be the case again.”