Todd Kelman is resigned to seeing head coach Andrew Lord leave Cardiff Devils in three years and says: “He will go on to bigger things – and deserves that.”
Canadian Lord and his team have achieved remarkable success since being appointed Devils player-coach four years ago.
They have won back2back Elite League titles, ending a 20-year wait to be crowned champions, plus winning the Challenge Cup twice and the Erhardt Conference three times.
Devils played in the Champions League last season, winning two of their six group games, and have qualified for the European competition again.
Canadian Kelman has reflected on the rise of Cardiff Devils from also-rans when he arrived to regaining their place as the best ice hockey team in Britain.
The Devils managing director came to South Wales four years ago from Belfast Giants, taking over day-to-day running of the club after Calgary-based businessman Steve King and his consortium bought the club.
Kelman has huge admiration for Lord and Adam Keefe, the Belfast coach who led his team to Challenge Cup success this season.
Former Giants player Keefe has followed Lord into coaching and Kelman says: “Both men are going to be gone from this league in three years, going on to bigger and better things. They deserve that.
“Winning the Elite League title this season felt sweeter than the first time. A lot of fans, in Cardiff and around the league, wrote us off at the start and talked about the team changes we should have made.
“We didn’t change anybody and added Tyson Strachan, who has been brilliant. We are so happy to have won it again with the same team core.
“It felt a lot tougher to win this season, a real battle. At times we felt invincible during 2016-17, but we were eight points behind Nottingham at one stage this season, but went from fourth to first.
“We won 11 in a row and have been rolling ever since. It’s been one hell of a season.”
Key defenceman Andrew Hotham clinched the League title by scoring the winning goal against Belfast in Northern Ireland with 20 seconds left and Kelman said: “I felt the stress and my heart seemed to be going at a million miles an hour until Hotham scored that goal.
“I haven’t moved so fast as I did at the moment in a long time. I was so happy for the guys, so happy for this season.
“Seven championships in four years. That’s crazy.”
Kelman joined Devils in 2014 when they were playing out of the Big Blue Tent in Cardiff Bay and had finished ninth out of 10 teams in Elite League the previous season.
Kelman says: “I left Belfast and when my wife and I walked into the BBT she asked ‘What are you thinking?
“The SSE Arena in Belfast is the best in Elite League and we have so many good friends there. The situation in Cardiff at the time was so different.
“There were 12 0r 13 of us working out of Portakabins in Cardiff Bay, while the players were taking ice baths in garbage bins and they scarcely had a locker room.
“It’s great fun to think where we came from in the BBT to where we are as a club now, playing out of Ice Arena Wales. What we have achieved in Cardiff has been a cool experience.
“The fans have turned out in numbers and great credit goes to Andrew Lord and the guys in our locker room.
“Players probably joke about how strict Lordo is, but he is strict for a reason and is a great coach.
“After winning back-to-back League championships nobody can deny that.”
Lord and his players are focused on adding an eighth trophy to their haul by winning the end-of-season play-off championship.
Devils have not won this competition for almost two decades and Lord underlined his commitment to the Cardiff cause after scoring the last League goal of this season, clinching a 7-3 win against Milton Keynes Lightning in the final match.
He was given a standing ovation, was named man of the match and tweeted: “I can’t thank @cardiffdevils and all of you fans enough for giving me a night I’ll never forget.
“It’s hard to put into words so for now, just thank you! Time to focus on breaking the final curse.”
Devils play Coventry Blaze in the PredictorBet Play-off quarter-finals. The first leg is at Coventry’s Skydome arena on Good Friday (7.30pm) with the return being played at Ice Arena Wales, Cardiff Bay on Sunday (6pm).
The full PredictorBet play-offs quarter-final line-up is: Cardiff Devils v Coventry Blaze, Manchester Storm v Fife Flyers, Sheffield Steelers v Guildford Flames, Nottingham Panthers v Belfast Giants (Overtime and penalties will be used after the second legs if needed).
Tickets for the play-off quarter-final home leg against Blaze can be purchased by CLICKING HERE or by ringing 0800 0842 666.
The play-off finals weekend is in Nottingham over the weekend of Saturday, April 7 and Sunday, April 8.