Leeds Knights: Summer patience pays off as imports Grant Cooper and Zach Brooks have desired impact

It was his 22nd goal of the NIHL National season, a season which is quickly turning into a memorable one for the 26-year-old Canadian, his first in UK hockey.

When coaches make their import signings, they are under huge pressure to get it right, particularly in the UK’s second tier when they essentially only have two available slots.

Changes can be made mid-season, but that brings all manner of red tape and the kind of headaches that clubs can well do without.

In both cases this summer, Knights’ head coach Ryan Aldridge has got it right. Cooper and fellow Canadian Zach Brooks – no slouch himself with 37 points, including 14 goals – have lit up NIHL National, each playing a massive role in the Knights’ early-season success, helping produce a run of form that leaves them two points clear at the top of the standings with a game in hand.

They are also the only team still to be beaten in regulation.

The season is barely a third of the way through, with 36 regular season games still to come, but Aldridge is confident he has the right personnel in the room to help deal with whatever is thrown at them over the next 4-5 months - and that includes his Canadian duo.

“Coops has got the points, which is obviously great, but it’s all the other little things that he does that are just as important,” said Aldridge.

“For instance, in Hull the other night, when we were winning 5 or 6-1 he’s still going down and blocking a shot, it’s those kind of things that make a difference.

“He plays a typical North American game, they both do, so I had a good idea of what kind of players I was getting.

“With Coops, I had been looking for a right-handed shot for a long, long time and I turned away quite a lot of good left-handed players away. But then it got to the point where it was a case of ‘do I want a better player, or a player that’s got a right-handed stick’.

“And then Coops came across on my computer screen and after the research I did on him, the people I spoke to, I just knew I had to get him over here.

"Brooksy is great, too – he is everything I was told he would be, he’s got more points than I was probably expecting him to get – but then so has Coops. Brooksy is a great kid and has probably had more of an impact on the team than Coops, in my eyes. He is a big part of the locker room. They both fit in well.”

Both players have settled into life in the UK quickly, on and off the ice, Cooper’s transition no doubt helped by having his fiance over in the UK with him. Both he and Brooks live in a local apartment complex that houses a number of the Knights’ players, another factor in helping forge a tight-knit feel to the playing group.

Cooper admits he wasn’t sure what to expect from his first-ever overseas roster spot and probably surprised himself when he reached the 10-game mark with 25 points to his name. His consistency continued when he broke through 50 points in the 20th league game of the season in Hull.

Now it is all about maintaining the kind of form which has helped take the Knights to their current lofty position.

“When I first got over here, I was just getting my feet wet, finding out what Ryan was expecting of me as an import and getting acclimated with some of the guys here,” said Cooper.

“I kind of just took it day by day and I don’t think we expected too much as a group because it’s a new team here. But it seems to be going pretty well every weekend at the minute, so we’ve just got to keep moving this forward.

“It’s nice going into games knowing you have a chance to win every night and it’s been going well so far. We’re going to have some hiccups here and there but we’re a tight-knit group.

“You’re going to win games, you’re going to lose games, that’s hockey - we’ll just have to face the adversity when it comes, but I think the guys in the locker room and Ryan himself, from the top down, have been good in keeping us focussed, keeping us grounded and we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”