Peterborough Phantoms head coach Colin Patterson will aim to keep the nucleus of last year's team for their next season in the English Premier League.

Phantoms finished last season fourth in the league but won just one of six matches in the play-offs.

Director of ice hockey Jon Kynaston said: "We're due to make an announcement this Saturday on the first few player signatures.

"We're hoping to have all the squad building done by mid-July."

Interview: Phantoms director Jon Kynaston

Canadian Patterson replaced former head coach Phil David in May and will arrive at the club in late July or early August.

Negotiations are ongoing so I can't commit to names at this stage Phantoms director of ice hockey Jon Kynaston

Kynaston said: "Colin's made it quite clear he'd like to keep as much of the squad together as possible for next year, given that we had a good year last year.

"We're working with Colin and last year's squad to see if we can return the nucleus of it for Colin to work with in September."

He added: "Negotiations are ongoing so I can't commit to names at this stage.

"But what I would say is that we had a successful year and the key players [are the ones] we're targeting for a return.

"We'll have an announcement on Saturday and over the next few weeks we expect to be announcing the shape of the next team."