Photograph of Jesse Hammill during his time with the Peterborough Islanders.

In a season where almost everything has been thrust upon the team, Raiders management are saddened to have to advise that Coach Jesse Hammill has decided to leave the UK and British ice hockey to take up an unmissable employment opportunity back home in Canada.

It is a decision completely unrelated to his hockey activities and we are aware of how difficult a decision this has been for Jesse. Jesse will make himself available to us for the next 3 weekends and after that work outside of the sport beckons for the RVW "Guvnor".

We are sincerely sorry to see him go and grateful for his efforts and dedication to the Raiders in a season that started in far from ideal circumstances. His passion for the game and the team is clear to see and that will be a difficult benchmark for his successor to match up to. We think that the club still offers a great deal for any potential successors and we are confident that however big his boots, we will fill them and adequately too!

We have to grasp this as an opportunity to try something new and set about the task of reaching the playoffs from another direction and anyone taking on the role will have that as their "job description".

This latest development has not diverted us from the task of signing an import forward, and we are confident that an announcement will be made shortly on this front as well.