The Newcastle Northstars will be forced to juggle their import players for the rest of the 2018 season after the arrival of Canadian forward Sammy Banga this week.
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The fourth-placed Northstars now have five overseas imports on their roster, one less than the maximum squad allowance but one more than the restriction for any one Australian Ice Hockey League fixture.
Banga slots straight in for this weekend’s double header at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium with Czech gun Tomas Landa sidelined following a head knock suffered in Saturday’s 2-0 loss to the Sydney Bears.
However, with US forward Joseph Harcharik and fellow Canadians Sam Lawson and Nick Rivait also on the books, it means the six-time national champions will have to rotate their list of visitors when they are all available.
“You can have six imports, but you can only play four at any one time,” Northstars general manager Garry Dore said. “We have five imports now so we will have to rotate them around.”
We have five imports now so we will have to rotate them around.”
- Newcastle Northstars general manager Garry Dore
Banga, who trained with the Northstars on Thursday night less than 24 hours after landing in Australia, is set to line-up at Warners Bay against the Perth Thunder on Saturday (5pm) and the Melbourne Ice on Sunday (4pm).
The 25-year-old narrowly beats the transfer window, fixed at appearing before match 15 to qualify for play-offs. Newcastle are approaching games 13 and 14.
“Sammy’s arrived just in time for us,” Dore said. “Imports can join later [after round 15], but they miss the finals.”
Banga grew up in Windsor, located on the Detroit River at the southern-most tip of the east-central Canadian province Ontario.
He recently graduated from Brock University, near Niagara Falls, after playing 129 games over five seasons for school team the Badgers.
Banga made his professional debut for the Norfolk Admirals, who play the East Coast Hockey League, in April.
“I was thinking about coming here [Australia] earlier in the season but I was doing a masters program at school,” Banga said.
“I kept tabs on it and they [Northstars] reached out to me a week ago. Now it’s all happened so quick. I graduated and I didn’t really have anything holding me back so I thought I may as well do it.”
It took him around 35 hours to reach the Hunter and he can’t wait to get his skates on.
“It’s been pretty hectic, but I’m looking forward to playing,” he said.
“Just get the jet lag out, get used to the time zone and get out on the ice.”
The Northstars suffered their biggest loss of the campaign against Perth, going down 8-2 at home less than a fortnight ago. Newcastle defeated the Ice in Melbourne 5-4 on May 12.
