Get Carter

Matt Carter signing & Panthers media failings are covered by Jono Bullard.

Matt Carter has been announced as the second new face on the Panthers roster for 2016/17. Playing left wing he joins from Les Rapaces de Gap of Ligue Magnus in France where he played in 66 league, cup and play-off games for 86 points (49+37), 76 PIMs & a plus/minus rating of +23. Carter also iced in one Champions Hockey League game for Rapaces against Eisbaren Berlin, scoring twice (Highlights).

While Carter’s ECHL stats are not exactly prolific, it’s worth pointing out that his French stats and those in the CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) are better than those of former Panther and current Cardiff Devil Guillaume Doucet, who is of course a prolific scorer in the EIHL. For comparison Carter scored 1.31 points per game in France against Doucet’s 0.77. In the CIS Carter managed 1.30 PPG against Doucet’s 0.96 (many thanks to Gilly on The Cage Forum for the stats).

A close friend of Chris Lawrence, Carter is expected to feature on a line with the returning Panther and Nottingham’s only other new recruit so far, Jeff Brown.

While there has been negativity in some quarters regarding Carter’s signing (have a look at this thread on The Cage Forum to see what I mean), I can see him fitting into Corey Neilson’s roster very well. He already has on ice understanding with Lawrence & Brown and judging by some of the Tweets coming out of France he will be sorely missed in Gap.

Talking of Twitter, this is how Nottingham Panthers announced the signing on Monday afternoon:

I know we have criticised Panthers social media presence several times both here and on the Podcast but I’m afraid it just isn’t good enough. No link to the article on the Panthers website and no mention of Matt Carter at all. Also, no build up to the signing. While some may like that I look at how other clubs do it. Most say they will be releasing signing news at a certain time and while Braehead’s hourly countdowns may be overkill, they at least keep the news in fans consciousness.

When I look at other EIHL clubs it is clear that we are being left behind on all forms of media. Compare Panthers output this close season to Coventry Blaze as an example. The Blaze have been incredibly active in keeping fans engaged, be it through articles on their website, interviews with former players or video interviews with current players & coach Danny Stewart they have done an excellent job of keeping their fans engaged. In contrast Panthers output has been pretty lacklustre to say the least with just the odd audio interview with Corey Neilson after each signing. While that is good and to be expected, there have been no interviews with any of Panthers re-signings with the exception of David Clarke.

I feel the club really haven’t grasped the whole media concept as a way of keeping fans informed and on-board. For a club of our size and stature I’m afraid it just isn’t good enough and needs addressing, otherwise we are going to fall further behind some of the other EIHL clubs with the excellent progress and content they are producing media wise. We are one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the league, it’s about time the media & social media output started to reflect that.