Sheffield Steelers move quickly to replace netminder Oskar Ostlund with Elite League rival's back-up

It has turned out to be anything but after a fluke injury on the morning of the Steelers’ opening league game of the season against Cardiff Devils saw him sidelined. He has been there ever since.

In his absence, Matt Greenfield has thrived between the pipes for the Steelers, consistently near the top of the goaltending stats for the whole league and back-stopping his team into being a serious regular season title contender.

Ostlund is finally ready to come off injury reserve this week but, given the form of his fellow goalie, he has – after conversations with Steelers’ head coach Aaron Fox – asked to be released from his contract with the Steelers as he pursues options to get a regular start elsewhere in Europe.

The Steelers have moved quickly to replace him by bringing in Hayden Lavigne from EIHL rivals Manchester Storm, the 26-year-old joining his new team-mates for practise on Friday morning ahead of Saturday night’s home game against Glasgow Clan (face-off 7pm). Lavigne – a British passport holder – became available due to Storm’s need to bring in a forward.

“We had a chat about our current situation with Oskar and he understood that Greener is our guy here moving forward and that I could not promise him a string of games to get him into form,” Steelers’ head coach Aaron Fox.

“After the conversation, he asked for his release to pursue an option to play more games in Europe. If this was most any other league with a long play-off format things would likely have been different, but with the situation we are currently in and the league standings being so tight our plan is to ride Greener here.

“With how things have gone this year for him, Osty really wants and needs to play and we weren’t going to hold him back from that so have agreed to release him effective immediately. He’s worked hard in this process and unfortunately things didn’t work out here as I believe he’s a quality goalie and wish him well.

“With the injuries Manchester had up front and needing to release him to bring in a forward, the timing of Hayden becoming available was great for us, as he’s already in the country and is a British passport holder.

“He has shown he can win games in this league beating some top teams already and he understands he’s coming in to work hard and support Greener.”

Lavigne understands his position coming into the Steelers’ set-up, but is more than willing to play a key support role for Grenfield.

“This is a great opportunity for me,” said Lavigne. “I understand Matt is our No 1 but I’ll try and push him as hard as I can every day and I’m sure he will do likewise.

“I know my role coming in and I’ll do whatever is required for the team.”