Mitchell Balmas has put pen to paper on a new Sheffield Steelers contract ahead of the 2024/2025 season with the Yorkshire club confirming so on Monday morning. Balmas played a pivotal role in the Steelers’ grand slam winning season as he raced to the top of the scoring charts across the league. Balmas is an incredibly big signing by the Steelers and a statement to rival clubs that the Steelers will be challenging for all three domestic trophies again. Balmas, who has followed in the footsteps of fellow Canadian Kevin Tansey, has signed on as part of a University Deal where he will study an MBA at Sheffield Hallam University. The gratitude the Stelrers have for Sheffield Hallam University was shown by Aaron Fox as he proclaimed that without the deal, Mitchell Balmas would not have been able to stay in Sheffield.
For most of the 2023/2024 season, Mitchell Balmas went under the radar on the Steelers roster with teammates Patrick Watling, Kevin Tansey and Marco Vallerand taking the spotlight on the Sheffield sides roster. This was seen in the first game of the regular season when Balmas scored an impressive goal to lead against the Coventry Blaze. Balmas kept up this scoring pattern throughout the season as he recorded 66 points in 54 EIHL games. This was a huge success as it was the most points scored by any forward in the Elite League throughout the year. The addition of Balmas was surprising as the 26 year old was only signed by Aaron Fox in September as an addition to his already completed roster. This move proved to be a correct one by Fox as he heavily relied on Balmas throughout the year to win him games. Balmas was known around the league for his superb shot especially on the power play with him scoring many goals from the point. This including game winning goald vs Cardiff in December and a brace in Nottingham which secured a 3-2 Victory. Until coming to the Elite League, Balmas hadn’t taken his career outside of North America with him playing two seasons across the American Hockey League (AHL) and the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). Over the two seasons, Balmas spent the majority of the time playing a 3rd line role in the AHL where he scored just 8 points in 44 games. This helped boost Balmas’ game coming into the EIHL as it meant Aaron fox knew he had a solid defensive player slotted into his top six making him the perfect all round forward.
Balmas was a key contributor in the end of season successes the Steelers had as he was a big game player. This included a goal and an assist in the Challenge Cup Final and 4 points in the game that secured the EIHL title including a game winning goal. These points proved to be huge in the final scores of these games as the all came at important and necessary times. During the Challenge Cup Final. Balmas picked up an assist on the power play to set up Patrick Watling who’s strike proved to be the game winning goal. Balmas then added to the Steelers lead 5 minutes later when his tip infront secured a 3-1 victory for the Steelers. Aaron Fox has also commented on how important the Canadian forward was to the Steelers power play as he was double shifting towards the latter end of the season. This meant Balmas was out on the ice for the whole two minute man advantage in the rare occasion that his efforts didn’t lead to a goal. This was also Fox’s plan for the PlayOff final which saw a successful major power play for the Steelers where the capitalised on a Printz major penalty. In an interview with Peter Spencer, it was confirmed that if Mikko Juusola didn’t take a penalty 3 minutes into the power play, Balmas was going to ice the whole 5 minutes to give the Steelers the best chance of scoring.
Overall, Mitchell Balmas will be looking to replicate and improve the work he and his teammates did last season as the Steelers aim to win a back to back grandslam for the first time in the clubs rich history. Now he is familiar with the league, Balams will know he will have a target on his back as rival teams look to shut down the Steelers ‘main man’. The expectations from Aaron Fox will be fairly similar of Balmas as Fox could not speak any higher of the young man in his interview with Peter Spencer. The Steelers head coach spoke about how Balmas is the guy who loves being at the rink and is always wanting to stay on the ice after training to gain experience and knowledge to win games. Balmas’ reliability is also a huge bonus to Aaron Fox as he was able to secretly Balmas in all 70 games across all competitions last season. Both Fox and Balmas will be hoping the same will be able to happen next campaign if the Steelers are to compete with the likes of Cardiff and Belfast with their new and improved rosters.
Author: Will Harris
Last Edited: 19:52 - 24/7/2024
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