Andrew Hotham’s confirmed departure from the Cardiff Devils this week will be a bitter pill to swallow for the team and its fans.

The end of the season. The time of year in the sporting calendar where teams chop, change and rebuild.

Players come and go. Sometimes involving eye-watering figures, sometimes high profile, sometimes loved. We welcome those who arrive in the hope that they can push our team towards fulfilling its sporting dreams, we also say goodbye to those who we’ve cheered on from the stands each week and almost consider as family. And sometimes, we resign ourselves to seeing a player move on who personifies the very essence and spirit of the team that we take such great pride in.

It is difficult to think of a team in Welsh sport, who are losing a stronger character and leader this summer, as league champions the Cardiff Devils and player Andrew Hotham go their separate ways.

There have been rumours speculating Hotham’s departure ever since the Devils won their Play-Off Championship two months ago.  Those rumours were indeed confirmed yesterday when the player himself announced via Twitter that his time in the Welsh capital had come to an end.

Sometimes it is easy to forget that Andrew Hotham, 31, has been with the Cardiff Devils for only four years, such is the impact he has made on the team.

Arriving as a relatively unknown on the UK hockey scene, the Canadian-born defenceman forged a reputation as one of the best players to hit the ice in the modern British game. Whether or not he has played his last game in this country remains to be seen, but what is certain is that he leaves an irreplaceable hole in the Cardiff Devils roster.

Brought up in a hockey family, his father Greg played in the NHL for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins, his older brother Scott was also formerly a Cardiff Devil having enjoyed a career that has stretched across Europe and North America. Andrew Hotham’s playing style has followed that of his father, plying his trade as a highly effective offensive defenceman.

Frequently combining his first defensive pairing duties for Devils and on both the power play and penalty-kill special teams, Hotham has been a player capable of logging huge minutes on the ice making him indispensable to head coach Andrew Lord, who shared his immense respect for the player in a statement via social media.

“The vision and awareness he had on the ice is something I’ve never seen before first hand. As much as he would drive me nuts as a coach at times with his approach to the game overall, what a pleasure it was to see him on a game night.

“We all know about his skill but what I’ll always remember the most is the competitor he would turn into when we really needed him. And the leader he would turn into when the boys needed him. He always had his teammates’ backs no matter what, and he would help them in so many different little way; often doing things they would never even know about.

“He never wanted to be seen as a leader, but what a leader he was.

“His huge goals to win us the league title and playoffs are a great final reminder of the player and gamer he has been for us. But I think if you really look back over the four years there are so many more memories than just these.”

Hotham’s playing style in a Devils jersey won’t just be missed by Andrew Lord of course. The Devils fans will talk about Andrew Hotham for years to come and any debate about retiring his number 24 shirt, along with other club greats would certainly be an interesting one.

How Devils fans loved his cavalier presence on the ice… Skating up high when the Devils were in possession of the puck, threading passes and creating chances with speed and precision before turning in an instant into a rugged, in-your-face defenceman when tasked with protecting his own net. Night after night, Andrew Hotham played as big a role as anyone as the team ascended to the top of the British hockey ladder and then successfully defended their title.

Andrew Hotham has also proven to be an asset to the Cardiff Devils away from the ice. Named as an ambassador for LGBT Sport Cymru, he has worked closely with the organisation to further promote their message ‘Make sport everyone’s game’ and the Devils’ pride night is now enjoyed by the team and fans as a regular fixture in the team’s annual calendar.

In 209 games in the EIHL (the top-level of British ice hockey), Hotham scored an incredible 219 points averaging more than a point-per-game in three of his four seasons in Cardiff. Of that total, 161 of those were assist points and in his final season with the Devils he enjoyed his best season yet, posting 18 goals and 43 assists over 56 league games.

In order to final a player who can live up to that billing and expectation on and off the ice, coach Andrew Lord had better start living up to his namesake.