Leeds Knights: Sam Gospel and the relentless battle to remain at the top of his game

That isn’t just down to the opinion of coaches, players, fans - it is also generally backed up by stats and, perhaps most importantly, trophies.

Once the Knights established itself as the new franchise in Leeds under owner Steve Nell back in the Spring of 2021, Gospel was among their first signings.

Since then, he has been the almost ever-present backbone of the team, back-stopping them to five trophies - three league titles, as well as a play-off crown and, finally last year, the NIHL National Cup.

This year could possibly be the first year the Knights end a season without silverware for the first time since the franchise’s inaugural campaign of 2021-22.

Since the league returned from Covid in the Autumn of 2021, Gospel has topped the stats on almost every occasion, both in terms of save percentage and Goals Against Average - the two most key numbers for all goaltenders.

Gospel has been constantly pushed over the years, initially by fellow British goalies such as Swindon Wildcats’ Renny Marr and Milton Keynes’ Jordan Hedley and Telford’s Brad Day to name but a few.

Nowadays there is a twin ‘threat’ to his leading man status with the increased number of import netminders coming into the league.

Back when the NIHL National started life as the British game’s second tier in 2019, there was an unwritten rule – almost a gentleman’s agreement, if you like – that import goalies would not be signed.

That is how it remained until the 2024-25 season when import goalies first started to appear.

This season, for the first time, the number of import goalies as first-choice netminders for teams is greater than their British counterparts – six of the 11 teams going down that route.

The team to sign an import goalie most recently was Hull Seahawks, partly forced into the move when Canadian defenceman Brock Bartholomew suffered a season-ending injury.

When the option to sign Finnish netminder Aleksanteri Heiskanen came up, Seahawks’ head coach Matty Davies felt it was too good an opportunity to ignore.

It’s fair to say since he arrived in January, Heiskanen has taken the league by storm.

At the end of the regular season, having made 16 appearances, he topped both the save percentage and GAA lists. Of goalies who played all season, Gospel was still top when it came to save percentage.

He and Heiskanen will go head-to-head this weekend when Leeds and Hull face-off in back-to-back play-off games.

Coming through the junior system in his hometown of Nottingham, Gospel was part of the EIHL’s Nottingham Panthers organisation for a number of years. But chances were few and far between and it is in the second tier where he has made his name as have a number of other British goalies, including the aforementioned Marr, Day and Hedley among others.

“I’ve always been a massive advocate for British goaltending,” said Gospel, who this season has been supported by two young goalies in the shape of Dan Norton and Ollie Booth. “I’ll always expect myself to be at the top and push myself to be there.

“It’s a hard subject to talk about because everybody wants British talent and, for me, British goaltending is a massive subject and there has to be a pathway from juniors all the way to the top.

“And I think with the rise in import goaltending, that pathway can look slightly blocked and it hinders or halts a young goalies’ ambitions.

“Every team needs a British goalie, including the GB team, so there has to be a pathway all the way through.

“It’s a tough one. I’ll fly the flag for British goaltending as long as I can. No matter who comes in, who leaves or stays elsewhere, I still expect myself to be at the top - that’s just the way I operate.

“Over the course of my career I’ve learned that the numbers will take care of themselves as long as you keep performing night in, night out.

“And sometimes I need to remember that at the end of the day, the thing that counts more than anything else is wins - that is the most important stat.

“Obviously, you do your best to make sure that your stats are the best - but wins is all that matters.

“Being better than import goalies is just an added motivation for me. You’ll always want to see yourself at the top (in terms of stats) but when you can compare yourself to goalies that may have played in a better league or a higher level than you, it feels like you’ve done something really good.”

During his time at Leeds, Gospel has worked with former netminder and goalie coach Davey Lawrence, who doubled up as assistant coach to Ryan Aldridge.

He was recently appointed as goaltending development coach for north England and the Midlands by the Ice Hockey UK Foundation, a big part of his remit being to ensure a pathway for goalies.

“My argument is that if you look at stats, wins and losses and you look at trophies, it tends to be British goalies that are behind the successful teams,” said Lawrence.

“You’ve got Gossy in Leeds, Renny in Swindon, Jordan Marr at Peterborough winning the play-offs, then Jordan Hedley in Milton Keynes winning the play-offs – they are the guys who are running with the stats, running with the trophies.

“So does bringing in an import goalie change that? I’m not so sure.”