The NHL Alumni clash between USA and arch rivals Canada is proving a hit with UK-based ice hockey fans.
The show rolls into town for three games next week and already the Saturday showdown on April 25 (6.30pm) in the Scottish Ice Hockey Cup is almost sold out.
There are, however, tickets available for the two other games at Murrayfield on Wednesday, April 22 (7.30pm) and Sunday, April 26 (5.30pm).
California-based, Ryan Bahl, the organiser, who is in Europe currently assessing talent in International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) fixtures, claims this is the biggest ice hockey series to ever come to the United Kingdom.
Bahl confirmed that Capital-based brewery firm, Cold Town, whose name is understood to derive from Edinburgh’s Calton Hill, are the headline sponsors for the star-studded series.
Two Dundee Stars players are set to appear in the action, American-born, left-wing or centre, Spencer Naas, who scored 18 goals and set up 23 other strikes for the Tayside team in 54 games last season, leader in the Elite League, and countryman, Keanu Yamamoto, a right-wing with 11 goals and 19 assists last term, whose brother, Kailer, players in the National Hockey League for Utah Mammoth.
Fife Flyers will be represented by three players, 37-year-old, Canadian-born, left-wing, Milan Lucic, who iced in over 1,500 fixtures in the world’s best league for teams including Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings, Garet Hunt, the club’s inspirational leader and captain who has just put pen to paper for another season at the Fife Ice Arena, and defenceman Simon Despres. He was drafted in the first round, 30th overall, in the 2009 NHL entry draft by Pittsburgh Penguins and he has also played for Anaheim Ducks.
Other names which will resonate with local ice hockey fans are Alaska-born Tim Wallace who was a centre or right wing with Sheffield Steelers and coach at Milton Keynes Lightning plus defenceman Jack Dougherty and who played 49 games for Sheffield in the 2025-26 season. He was drafted in round two of the NHL, 51st overall, in 2014 by Nashville Predators
A total of 80 youth hockey players from over 15 teams in the UK, including Murrayfield, Fife, Aberdeen, Moray, Dundee, Glasgow, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Dumfries, Blackburn, Bristol, Whitley Bay and Streatham in London are advertised as taking part in peripheral events.
CHEERS: Ryan Bahl (left) with Ruth Reid, brand and marketing manager for the Signature Group, who are the title sponsor.
