CATS centre Sami Ryhanen believes that in new player-coach Stevie Lye his team have a man at the helm who commands respect.

The 35-year-old from Finalnd has plenty of experience himself and has played hockey across Europe and taken by the Cats in part due to the prospect of working with Lyle.

Having scored twice already in pre-season Ryhanen has clearly settled in fast at the Link Centre and he is hopeful the experience provided by himself and the likes of Miroslav Zalesak, combined with the squad’s younger faces can breed success.

At the head of the new-look team is Lyle, the first time player-coach who has been learning fast in Cats’ challenge fixtures about his new role. The former Great Britain goalie’s Finnish charge is confident in his new manager’s ability to lead from the back.

“Stevie has played for such a long time, everybody respects him and he knows a lot about hockey. I think he’s going to be good and it will be a good year for us,” said Ryhanen.

“The experience and respect are two main things he brings to the role.

“He’s played so many years, he’s played in national teams and people look at him like ‘wow’. I think might be his best attribute as a coach.

“I’m really excited about the Wildcats. I spoke to Stevie two weeks before I signed here and everything looked great.

“The guys who I played with at Nottingham and Dundee said it is a good place to come to and I’m really excited to be here.

“We have a good mix of experienced guys and young guys so it’s important for us to grow together and be as a team.

“It seems like we have a great bunch here so I don’t think it will be a problem.”

Ryhanen has played under dual role bosses before with Corey Neilson at Nottingham Panthers and Jeff Hutchins at Dundee Stars. He does not see it as a problem to share the ice with the man in charge.

“I’ve played with two player-coaches before,” he added. “Between the periods it’s pretty much the same, but if there’s something in the middle of the period, say if they want to change the system then it’s a bit hard.

“Other than that I don’t think there’s much difference.”