Fife Flyers holds talks with EIHL over coronavirus impact

The club was represented as all 10 teams discussed the impact the early finish has caused to the league in general and the clubs in particular. 

Other topics included roster sizes and make-up, budgeting, the start date for next season and more.

These items are scheduled for further discussion and the league has promised to update fans when firm decisions are made.

An EIHL statement read: “First and foremost the teams would like to thank fans for their patience and understanding.

“The clubs cannot emphasise enough the need for everyone to stick to the guidelines, to self-isolate, to social distance themselves, to wash hands, and to make only essential journeys if any.

“We want to see everyone again when the Elite League drops the puck again, whenever that may be and we’d like to remind fans the health rules are in place for a reason.”

Meanwhile, the clubs agreed that the players’ statistics for the prematurely ended season will stand as they were when the remaining games were cancelled.

Leading goal scorers, points scorers, assists and netminder averages will all remain as they were at the time of the announcement to end the rest of the 2019/20 campaign.

Last week, the EIHL also revealed plans to host a new ten-team weekend competition, dubbed a ‘Magic 5’ event, to launch the new season.

It is viewed as a replacement for the championship finals weekend which was scrapped as the 2019-20 season was curtailed prior to the play-offs taking place.

The aim would be to have all ten EIHL teams playing five back to back matches in one venue - the National Ice Centre in Nottingham - over one weekend. 

A date of September 12-13 has been pencilled, but it is very much subject to how quickly the coronavirus can be brought under control and the country returns to normal.