Guildford Flames pin hopes on British players

Smital is one of the international players still with the Flames

Guildford Flames commercial manager Kirk Humphries says he hopes home-grown talent can help them challenge for more silverware this season.

The Flames lost out on both the league and play-off titles last season after key injuries to their overseas stars stunted their chances.

"We had too many foreign players last year," Humphries told BBC Surrey.

"We had so many injuries we ended up with a large roster but not enough people on the ice."

A busy summer has seen the Guildford outfit replace several internationals with British players and Humphries feels this could improve their results.

"We've made a few changes and hopefully we'll have more of a cohesive unit to improve on our performances from last year."

After their injury ravaged campaign last year, the Flames are all too aware of the dangers of packing a roster with overseas stars and Humphries hopes their fortunes will change this season.

"This year hopefully we'll be a little luckier, and we've got ourselves down to a roster that can compete night in night out."

Despite their injury woes, the Flames won the Premier Cup and reached the play-off final last year.

The Flames begin the new campaign with a Challenge weekend against Basingstoke Bison on 11-12 September, before starting the League and Cup games at home to Bracknell Bees on 18 September.