Fife Flyers new import in town ahead of weekend debut

The former Nottingham Panthers player arrived in town on Wednesday and was due to train with his new team-mates on Thursday before joining them for the long road and boat trip across the Irish Seas to face Belfast Giants in a Challenge Cup game which is nothing more than a dead rubber.

Flyers are already out of the cup, and Giants have strolled into the quarter-finals after an effortless qualifying campaign.

The 28 years old Québec born forward joins the team as it looks for a win to halt a worrying sequence of losses – and coach Tom Coolen hopes he will be the spark it needs.

Carozza played four seasons Major Junior in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with both the Québec Remparts and Cape Bretton Screaming Eagles where he was previously a team mate of both Phélix Martineau and Olivier LeBlanc.

But hockey fans on this side of the pond may remember him from his 2021-22 stint with Panthers where he registered 24 points in 26 games.

Carozza has played in Europe since 2018/19 when he turned pro with Italian club Bolzano in the EBEL. He stayed in the country across the pandemic seasons with Pustertal/Val, where he was top scorer in consecutive years recording more than a point a game in his 89 appearances.

After icing in Nottingham, he joined Bordeaux in France and then went on to play with Cortina in a return to Italy.

Coolen is hopeful he won’t be the last new face in the dressing-room as he looks to turn things around.

“The addition of Carozza is a step forward - and it is step by step,” he said. “We have one move left and it has to be the right guy coming into to help the team. I’d hope the league will give us a spot to replace Latal - they can do so if there are extenuating circumstances, but that’s a very broad definition. Does that cover family reasons, or health? What falls under that remit?”