Steelheads hope free agency splashes can lift team to Kelly Cup

BOISE — Every October, the Idaho Steelheads go into a new season with the goal of skating away with the Kelly Cup when it ends in June.

The goal is no different this season, as Idaho prepares to open the season Friday with a game against the Utah Grizzlies at Idaho Central Arena. But with some of the big splashes the team made in free agency during the offseason, it feels like the team is really going all in on a championship or bust mentality.

“You never really know the product you’ll have until you put it on the ice, but obviously there are some big signings we made in the offseason,” said forward A.J. White, who is entering his seventh season with the team, the sixth as captain. “There’s a lot of excitement around these new guys coming in with a lot of high-end skill. They showcased it early on in the preseason. I think it definitely helps knowing you’re going to be good and competitive and have a chance to have another year with a good team."

In addition to the 11 players who spent at least part of last season in Boise, the Steelheads took big swings with the signings of players like former ECHL MVP Hank Crone, veteran and Steelheads legacy Mark Olver and bringing back former ECHL Goaltender of the Year Tomas Sholl to serve in a bit of a different role than he had when he was with the team from 2018-20.

“We lost some big pieces from the last two years teams to overseas,” said Steelheads coach Everett Sheen. “We lost five of our top point producers, so we knew we had to go out and find some guys to fill some of those holes. So far, it looks like those guys should be able to step in and contribute.”

The flashiest addition is certainly Crone, who has put up 160 points over the past two seasons with the Mountain Division rivals Allen Americans. Crone took the league by storm his rookie year, in 2022-23, recording 49 goals and 56 assists on his way to earning ECHL MVP honors.

Over his two seasons in Allen, Crone became very familiar with the Steelheads, and the fans at Idaho Central Arena, with the Steelheads and Americans meeting in the playoffs both seasons. Idaho won both series.

“I think everyone would agree it’s a super tough place to play, arguably the toughest place to play in the league,” said Crone. “I had my fair share of battles seeing it, and it probably helped out that Sheen could get his eyes on me, since we played them so much. It was weird when it happened, but it’s a perfect storm now that I’m here.”

Crone’s addition was in large part facilitated by Steelheads defenseman Matt Register, who Crone played with during the summer of 2023 in 3Ice, a 3-on-3 hockey tournament. Their team, Team Murphy won the league title.

Register informed Sheen about Crone’s interest in joining the team, and that started conversations which eventually landed the former MVP in Boise.

“We’ve had our battles the last couple of years and he’s obviously a guy I don’t want to play against,” Crone said of Register. “I would rather be on his side, it just makes it even funnier that he knocked my teeth out last year.”

Idaho also added a veteran in Olver, a 36-year-old who has spent nine of the past 10 years playing in Europe, including the last seven in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, in Germany.

Olver is the son of former Steelheads coach John Olver, the winningest coach in franchise history who led the team to its first Kelly Cup title in 2004.

Mark Olver also spent parts of three seasons in the NHL with the Colorado Avalanche, from 2010-13, recording 10 goals and 12 assists in 74 games.

“He’s got a tremendous resume,” said White, who will start the season paired up on the same line as Olver. “Being able to play with a guy who’s played in the NHL and played in the DEL, he’s what you would call a true hockey guy. His world revolves around it, he’s a true professional and it’s fun to see him on the ice as well and everything he’s capable of.”

Also coming from Europe is Sholl, who posted 11 shutouts in his three previous years in Idaho. Sholl had an ECHL-best 2.14 goals against average in 2019-20, before the season was prematurely ended by the COVID-19 pandemic and was named ECHL Goaltender of the Year that season.

Sholl signed an AHL deal with the Texas Stars the next season, eventually heading to Europe, where he's played in Slovakia, Italy and Sweden over the past four seasons.

While he will see time on the ice this season, he was brought in more to be a mentor to Bryan Thomson and Ben Kraws, two 6-foot, 5-inch goaltenders dubbed ‘The Two Towers’ by the self-professed ‘Lord of the Rings nerd’ Sholl. Thomson and Kraws are on contracts with the Texas Stars and Dallas Stars, respectively.

Sholl, who maintained a home in Boise even after leaving the team, said he briefly considered hanging up the skates, but still felt like he had a lot to offer, both as a mentor and on the ice if he were called upon.

He said he wouldn’t completely rule out this being a multi-year deal for him, but he has also applied to be a firefighter at several departments in the Treasure Valley.

“It’s kind of a transition year for me, I wasn’t even 100% sure if I was going to play,” said Sholl. “Once the season ended, my wife and I talked. We were expecting our first baby at the time. We were talking ‘am I going to play, am I going to try and get a job?’ We just knew that we wanted to be back in Boise. As the summer went on, I had a meeting with Sheen and laid out what I was thinking.

“I think I have a lot to offer these young guys in terms of mentality and how to approach the game,” he continued. “I’ve done really well in this league and I want to be a resource to help these guys do the same.”