I’ll be fascinated to see the rules going into next season. I sense current rules were in place to restrict budgets to even the playing field a bit as some clubs were on the brink of going bust. This has caused some issues with short benching impacting a lot of games. The impact loss of a few players to injury is magnified due to small roster size and makes it harder for teams to rest players who are playing banged up, further increasing injury risk. The levelling of the playing field has failed as the big 3-4 have generally managed to quickly spend to bring in injury replacements, whereas other teams haven’t always been able to (presumably cost comes into this) and it further amplifies the divide leading to run away top 3 with Nottingham floating in 4th while the other teams fight for the scraps for playoff position. Belfast and Sheffield are now able to carry spares to cover injury going into playoffs, which I think makes a joke of the whole 19 player limit. EIHL is in danger of further damaging credibility & that could impact appeal of league to overseas talent in the years ahead.