PHOENIX captain for the last two season Scott Basiuk has joined Sheffield Steelers.

Sheffield coach Dave Matsos admitted he spoke to the 6ft 2ins Canadian at the end of last season.

“It's a great signing for us” said Matsos “Scott helps us in so many areas. Firstly he shores up our back end, he is big and strong, he plays hard, I think he plays dirty and I like that.

“I know from speaking to many of our forwards that Scott Basiuk was a player they didn’t enjoy playing against.

“I spoke with Scott at the end of last season and was excited when he told me that he wanted play in Sheffield.

“We are also able to offer Scott an education package with the University of Sheffield, without their support I don’t think we would have been able to complete this deal.

“One other big area I think Scott will be a big plus for us is on the powerplay.

“Whilst Scott is a defensive defenceman he has a very big, hard short and he isn’t afraid to use it.”

Matsos plans to play Basiuk on the powerplay with Nathan Gillies after losing top scorer Dan Tessier. He said: “I think that with Basiuk jumping into the line up we have another guy who can score 10 - 15 goals.”

Phoenix coach Tony Hand has already moved to replace Basiuk with five defencemen% already on the roster in British pair Carl Graham and Luke Boothroyd, American Dwight Parrish and Canadians Kenton Smith and Josh Garbutt.

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