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The Aspray Chester Deeside Dragons are a Welsh ice hockey team that play in the National Ice Hockey League, north division.[1] They play their games at Deeside Leisure Centre, Flintshire, and replaced the previous team Flintshire Freeze. They won the North League championship in the 2015/16 season, with a record of 24-3-1[2] as well as the 2015/16 Laidler Playoffs. For the 2022/23 season the club has Aspray Chester [3] as the clubs title sponsor.
| Deeside Dragons | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City | Queensferry | |||
| League | NIHL | |||
| Conference | Division 1 North | |||
| Founded | 2012 | |||
| Operated | 2012 - present | |||
| Home arena | Deeside Leisure Centre | |||
| Colors | Red, Green & Black | |||
| General manager |  Shaun Bebbington | |||
| Head coach | Mike Clancy | |||
| Captain |  James Parsons | |||
| Media | Jakob Forster | |||
| Website | https://dragonsihc.com/ | |||
| ||||
| Championships | ||||
| Conference titles | 1 (2015/16) | |||
| Playoff championships | 1 (2015/16) | |||
The 2022/23 season sees the return of ice hockey to North Wales for the first time in over 2 years, due to the ice rink being used as a field hospital and later a vaccination centre for North East Wales.
In July 2015 it was reported that the Dragons had been bought by Red Hockey Limited,[4] a British Company who own the Telford Tigers English Premier League Ice Hockey team as well as having stakes in Manchester Phoenix and Bracknell Bees.
In 2015/16, the team won the league, gaining promotion to NIHL North 1 (Moralee). During the season there were issues between the owners of the Deeside Dragons and Flintshire County Council[2] which resulted in the ownership of the Dragons being removed from Red Hockey. Despite prior fears with the ownership of the Deeside Dragons logo these have been quelled with a rebranded logo. On the final home game of the 2015/16 season the Dragons were involved in an incident which saw their opponents Widnes Wild walk off the ice in the second period and refuse to continue the game.[5] Dragons player Alex Roberts received a three-game ban as a result of this incident.
In July 2016 it was announced that Scott McKenzie had left the Widnes Wild to join the Dragons as player-coach.[6] He left the following year.
At the end of the 2017/18 season the Dragons were relegated to the North Division 2 league.
Season-by-season record
edit| Season | Position | Wins | Draws | Losses | ± |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-13 | 2 | 17 | 1 | 6 | 88 |
| 2013-14 | 2 | 18 | 2 | 8 | 61 |
| 2014-15 | 5 | 15 | 2 | 17 | 31 |
| 2015-16 | 1 | 24 | 3 | 1 | 132 |
| 2017-18 (NIHL1) | 10 | 2 | 0 | 32 | -347 |
| 2018-19 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 21 | -43 |
| 2019-20 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 15 | 2 |
Club roster 2022-23
edit(*) Denotes a Non-British Trained player (Import)
| Netminders | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Nat. | Player | Catches | Date of birth | Place of birth | Acquired | Contract | ||
| 30 |
|
Philip Pearson | L | 5 August 1987 | Stockport, England | 2022 from Bradford Bulldogs | 22/23 | ||
| 37 |
|
Michael Rogers | L | 17 August 1997 | Warrington, England | 2022 from Blackburn Hawks | 22/23 | ||
| Defencemen | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Nat. | Player | Shoots | Date of birth | Place of birth | Acquired | Contract | |||
| 11 |
|
Billy Perks | 2001 (age 21) | Wales | 2022 | 22/23 | ||||
| 13 |
|
Matthew Wainwright | L | 19 November 1993 | Chester, England | 2022 from Blackburn Hawks | 22/23 | |||
| 14 |
|
Reece Cairney-Witter | L | 14 February 1995 | Bradford, England | 2022 from Blackburn Hawks | 22/23 | |||
| 15 |
|
Lewis Otley | R | 30 July 1999 | Sheffield, England | 2022 from Malungs IF | 22/23 | |||
| 19 |
|
Joshua Richardson | R | 1998 (age 24) | Chorley, England | 2022 from Bradford Bulldogs | 22/23 | |||
| 21 |
|
Micheal Jones | R | 4 September 1981 | England | 2022 | 22/23 | |||
| 55 |
|
Ross Kennedy | R | 30 January 1998 | St Asaph, Wales | 2022 from Leeds Knights | 22/23 | |||
| 91 |
|
Marc Lovell | L | 2 June 1982 | Chester, England | 2012 from Flintshire Freeze | 22/23 | |||
| Forwards | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Nat. | Player | Shoots | Date of birth | Place of birth | Acquired | Contract | |||
| 4 |
|
Charlie Spridgeon | 2001 (age 21) | England | 2022 from Telford Tigers 2 | 22/23 | ||||
| 5 |
|
James Parsons 'C' | L | 22 September 1987 | St Asaph, Wales | 2022 from Blackburn Hawks | 22/23 | |||
| 7 |
|
Alex Parry | 1 July 1992 | England | 2022 from Altrincham Aces | 22/23 | ||||
| 9 |
|
Gary Dixon | R | 8 June 1986 | Liverpool, England | 2022 from Blackburn Hawks | 22/23 | |||
| 22 |
|
Karl Bacon | Wales | 2022 from Blackburn Hawks | 22/23 | |||||
| 23 |
|
Simon Furnival | R | 11 August 1984 | Warrington, England | 2022 | 22/23 | |||
| 29 | 
|
Andy McKinney | R | 13 April 1991 | Hamilton, ON, Canada | 2022 from Telford Tigers | 22/23 | |||
| 33 |
|
M.J. Clancy | L | 17 June 2000 | Chester, England | 2022 from Blackburn Hawks | 22/23 | |||
| 61 |
|
Jared Dickinson | R | 17 September 1994 | Salford, England | 2022 from Blackburn Hawks | 22/23 | |||
| 72 |
|
Chris Jones | R | 25 May 1988 | Ely, England | 2022 | 22/23 | |||
| 79 | 
|
Petr Valusiak* | L | 7 September 1986 | Ostrava, Czechia | 2022 from Blackburn Hawks | 22/23 | |||
| 88 |
|
Christopher Keating | 1988 (age 34) | England | 2022 from Altrincham Aces | 22/23 | ||||
| Team Staff | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Nat. | Name | Acquired | Role | Place of birth | Joined From | ||||
|
|
Michael Clancy | 2022/23 | Head coach | Chester, England | Blackburn Hawks, NIHL 1 | |||||
|
|
Matt Compton | 2018/19 | Assistant coach | Chester, England | ||||||
|
|
David Clancy | 2022/23 | Goaltending Coach | Rinteln, Germany | Blackburn Hawks, NIHL 1 | |||||
|
|
Bruce Morton | 2014/15 | General Manager | England | ||||||
| 91 |
|
Marc Lovell | 2016/17 | Player-Assistant Coach | Chester, England | |||||
|
|
Charles Humphreys | 2022/23 | Equipment Manager | Wales | Blackburn Hawks, NIHL 1 | |||||
2021/22 Outgoing
edit| Outgoing | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Nat. | Player | Shoots | Date of birth | Place of birth | Leaving For |
References
edit- ^ "Deeside Dragons at eliteprospects.com". Eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- ^ a b Powell, Dave (17 February 2016). "Deeside Dragons crowned Laidler Conference champions". Chesterchronicle. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- ^ "Aspray Chester Title Sponsors of Deeside Dragons".
- ^ "Deeside Dragons Ice Hockey team bought by Red Hockey – Deeside.com". Archived from the original on 2016-06-30. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
- ^ Porter, Gary (4 April 2016). "Watch Deeside ice hockey bust up that left player with head injury and saw one team walk off". Dailypost.co.uk. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- ^ Powell, Dave (14 July 2016). "Deeside Dragons appoint Scott McKenzie as new player/head coach". Chesterchronicle. Retrieved 7 January 2019.