Sparta Prague, founded 1903. HC Davos, founded 1921. This season, playing alongside these two, and the countless other, storied franchises in the Champions Hockey League are the Braehead Clan, founded 2010. 

by Jon Rowson

In five years the Clan have gone from Elite Ice Hockey League newcomers to championship contenders, narrowly missing out on the EIHL title last season by the smallest of margins. Now they are ready to take on Europe.

There are not enough superlatives in the English dictionary to describe how meteoric the Clan’s rise has been. The Clan joined the EIHL as part of the league’s Scottish expansion, becoming members of the British top flight alongside the Dundee Stars and Fife Flyers. Upon their hasty creation in 2010, the Clan moved into the Braehead Arena, and despite a fifth-place finish and some promising performances under player-coach Bruce Richardson in the Clan’s first season, it took a while for Glasgow to adopt the Clan as their own. 

However, in their first years, the foundations were laid. Their commitment to icing young British talent was made clear from the get-go. Matthew Haywood personifies Braehead’s rise, as the British forward was signed by the Clan as a 19-year-old in 2010, and has gone on to make over 250 appearances for the club in addition to making his senior Great Britain debut in 2014 against the Netherlands, before representing his country this year at the IIHF Division 1B World Championship. 

Growing pains

Most thought that the Clan would go from strength to strength after their fifth place finish in 2010-11. However, the club were dealt a blow as Bruce Richardson returned to Canada to take up a head-coaching role in the junior leagues of Quebec. Former NHLer Drew Bannister took the reins as player coach and the Clan’s run and gun style of play entertained many, but struggled to make an impression on the league table. Despite 101 points in 58 games by Canadian forward Jade Galbraith, the Clan could only muster a sixth-place finish. 

The situation would go from bad to worse the season after. Bannister departed and the Clan turned to Jordan Krestanovich, another former NHLer who had captained the Clan in the 2011–12 season, to take up the player-coaching role. After a string of poor results, Krestanovich was relieved of his coaching duties, yet remained as a player as the Clan brought in former Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and Hamburg Freezers head coach Dave Gardner. With Gardner at the helm, the Clan once again flattered to deceive, especially defensively, conceding in excess of three goals per game during the season.

A fresh start

Summer 2013 brought many changes to the Braehead Clan, both on and off the ice. A new-look off-ice team including a new General Manager gave the team fresh impetus going into the 2013–14 season. The club quickly parted ways with Gardner and turned to long-time EIHL stalwart Ryan Finnerty, who guided the Sheffield Steelers to third place in the 2012–13 season. Under Finnerty’s tutelage, the Clan’s once shoddy defence was shored up and a new look team, featuring the likes of Neil Trimm, Scott Aarssen and Kyle Jones, put a halt to the Clan’s downward spiral. A fifth place league finish was followed by a playoff quarter-final victory over the Nottingham Panthers, and the Clan became the first Scottish team to reach the EIHL’s Playoff Finals weekend.

In Finnerty’s first season, the Clan were a team their opponents started to think about. In his second season, the Clan became a team their opponents downright feared. Fifth in the EIHL in 2013–14 was not good enough for the Clan, who re-signed Trimm et. al. and strengthened in other areas. Stefan Meyer was signed from Sheffield, Leigh Salters from Nottingham, and the Clan looked ever the challenger. Braehead were dominant in the Gardiner Conference, dropping a fraction of their games against their Scottish opposition as they romped to the Conference title, whilst also topping the EIHL table for large parts of the season. 

As documented at the time, a run of three losses in four games in the penultimate week of the season put paid to the Clan’s title challenge, but it is testament to the work done both on and off the ice that in the space of five years, the Clan are true title challengers in the EIHL. At the Braehead Arena and on the road, the ‘Purple Army’, the Clan’s passionate supporters, will always be heard, and it is with great pride the club have announced recently that they have secured 1200 season ticket holders for the current season, in an arena with a capacity of 3576.

The Clan have rapidly shot to prominence both in the United Kingdom, and now in Europe. As Clan General Manager Gareth Chalmers remarked in an interview at the CHL group stage draw in May, “I never thought we would be here so quickly, but we were very ambitious and we have big plans for the future. We want to become the best team in the U.K.” This ambition is clear in the Clan’s off-season acquisitions in preparation for their 2015–16 EIHL and CHL campaigns, most notably former Stanley Cup winning defenceman Ric Jackman. The 36-year-old, who was a member of the Anaheim Ducks for their 2006 triumph joins a formidable looking roster, featuring returning forwards Stefan Meyer and Matt Keith, as well as Alex Leavitt, who joins from the Ravensburg Townstars.

The Champions Hockey League will be the toughest test in the Braehead Clan’s short lifespan, but this is a franchise full of ambition and optimism, with a whole lot of momentum behind them. 

Team facts

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