Clan was Poles apart from how I imagined...
MY first experience of the Elite League came in February 2014 when I first signed for Braehead Clan. Now Scotland has become a second home for my family and I.
When I first came here, Paul Gardner was the coach at Braehead and I’d played under him before.
That was a big reason for me to come, plus I was playing alongside Ryan Campbell, who had played for the Clan for a couple of years before that and he spoke very highly of it.
My expectation of the league was much different than what my experience was – far better than I’d been led to believe.
It was definitely a step up from playing in Poland and it took me a couple of games to get into the swing of it, but it was a great experience.
I didn’t realise how big a league it was, with the amount of imports and even the quality of some of the players that were here.
I definitely would have come back if Paul was given another year, but it wasn’t to be on that occasion.
I’m a big believer in something happening for a reason and after a year in America, I was back in the UK with Coventry Blaze.
When it came to signing there, I had a couple of options so I had held off, but after talking with my wife, we decided to give the UK another go again.
Marc LeFebvre signed me but didn’t stay too long and we went on to win the play-offs that year, beating Sheffield Steelers in the final.
I’ve never played in a game like that before and to go and warm up in front of six or seven thousand fans was an experience in itself.
We beat Belfast on a shootout the day before and were on an incredible high and that whole weekend was the best and the biggest games of my career.
When I went to Dundee after another year away, we had a similar start to the one we had in Coventry, where it was slow and we struggled to get consistency.
From February on, we had our backs against the wall and played play-off hockey to get us into the last eight.
We played Braehead in the quarter finals and while there was my former association, I was focussed on helping Dundee get through and we did it.
But now, I’m back at Braehead and for me, it’s the best organisation I’ve ever played for so we enjoy being here.
Plus I had the chance to bring my son, Kavan, back to Scotland after being born here last year so it was another good reason to want to return.