The Kirkcaldy side found itself fighting for seven different trophies last season, winning five of them, as an energy-sapping campaign overran into May.

Dutiaume, who revealed in SportsPress last week that he intends to return as player-coach next season, believes the level of competition would improve if the Northern League and Celtic Cup combined to form a new Superleague.

"I'd be interested in seeing an amalgamation of some of the trophies so teams will have to focus on every game, rather than spreading their resources," he said.

"If there were fewer trophies, teams would be forced to focus on all the games.

"The biggest challenge for us last season was keeping everyone 100 per cent focused in every competition. We wanted to win them all, but other teams took nights off depending on what competition they were in.

"You saw that in the Celtic Cup, Solway didn't turn up every night, while Dundee didn't show up for the Northern League.

"If there was one league, teams wouldn't have the option to pick and choose their nights. Teams would have to do what we do and turn up every night.

"It would make for an exciting league, with more teams challenging for fewer titles."

Dutiaume reckons the current structure forces the season to overun.

"The Celtic Cup play-off would have been a perfect way to end the season but we had to come right back and play for the Northern League and the Northern League play-offs," he said.

"It was hard to find a way to pick up steam after that. It just seemed to be going on and on. It went two or three weeks too long.

"Emotionally and physically it was very demanding on the guys."

Dutiaume, however, identified potential problems in merging the Celtic and Northern Leagues.

"Would Whitley Bay want to go to Ireland and vice-versa?," he asked. "We don't want to lose either. Hopefully the powers that be can work it out."

SportsPress understands that a meeting took place on Saturday between Northern League (NL) representatives and the English Ice Hockey Association, where an invitation was to be made for any interested EPL or ENL sides to join the NL set-up for next season.

NL chiefs hope that attracting more teams from England could boost the league's profile, and increase import numbers to three per team.