Leeds Junior Knights are delighted to announce that former Sheffield Steelers and Great Britain U18/U20 international Davey Lawrence will join the club for our first season. Lawrence will take up the role as goaltending consultant, working alongside head coach Mike Forbes and the rest of the coaching staff.

Lawrence, who is from Barnsley came through the Sheffield junior system, before joining the Steelers where he played for five seasons in the Elite League. He was also recognised at international level, featuring in three World Championships for Great Britain U18s and U20s.

Lawrence is looking forward to sharing his experience with the netminders in Leeds, “I am so excited to be back involved with hockey again and I am really excited about there being hockey in Leeds. This would have probably been my home rink had it been built when I was growing up, so when I saw the news about the Junior Knights I was only too pleased to help.”

Junior Knights Chair Seth Bennett added, “We are so lucky to be able to call on somebody with Davey’s experience. Goalie coaching is a specialised role and it is brilliant that on day 1 as club we will have the knowledge he has in the building and ready to help our goalies at the majority of our training sessions.”

“I have known Davey for a long time and I know just how passionate he is about helping out the next generation of netminders to come through and share what experience he had playing for so long as a professional.”

Bennett continued: “This has been a massive week for the club, the player registrations are now coming through and we are beginning to think about ice time for our fixtures. We will be heading down to the Ozone for their 3’s tournament over bank holiday weekend and we have some exciting pre-season launch fixtures to announce soon.”

“It is amazing in the space of just eight weeks we have been able to go from nothing to having a club with a really motivated and excited membership looking ahead to the new season.”

Lawrence has already completed his EIHA netminding qualification and is bringing up-to-date the rest of his coaching portfolio prior to the start of the 2021/22 season.

Leeds Junior Knights are still looking for players of all abilities and experience for the 2021/22 season. If you are interested in what the club is about and whether or not it could help on the next step of your hockey journey then get in touch. Juniorchair@leedsknights.com or message @LeedsjrKnights on social media.