Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Dow extends his stay with Stars
CANADIAN defenseman Drydn Dow has signed a two-year contract extension that will keep him at Dundee Stars until the end of the 2025-26 season.
Dow, who has captained the club for the past three years, will return for his sixth and seventh Elite League campaigns.
The 31-year-old expressed his delight to be staying with head coach Marc Lefebvre’s team for another two seasons, saying: “I am really excited to be back.
“This is a place I have played for five years now and I am really excited to see the club continue to grow and see where it keeps going.
“I had a good year with Marc and really enjoyed my time with him. Obviously, he respects the way I play and lets me do what I need to do out on the ice, so he gives me a lot of free range and opportunity which I enjoy.
“Also, his style of coaching just plays well for my game, so it was an easy choice to come back.”
Dow continued: “It was exciting to make that play-off push this year but obviously we want to keep building on that.
“You can see this team has a lot of potential and you can see the growth as every year the club continues to grow in many ways, so hopefully we keep peaking and can bring a trophy back to Dundee.”
The Canadian also revealed how happy he is to continue playing in front of the Stars faithful, admitting: “I feel like we have one of the best fanbases in all of the UK, so it is a pleasure to play in front of them.
“The crowds are continuing to grow and, hopefully we see more sell-outs like we had this year and the season-ticket sales continue to increase because the fans’ support means the world to us and it gets us going every night.
“Hopefully, we can continue to build on this past season.”
Dow has featured in 307 games (261 league, 40 Challenge Cup and six play-off) for Stars after joining from the University of Calgary in the summer of 2018.
In the last six seasons, Dow has only broken service to the club once as the Covid-affected 2020-2021 season allowed him to find more success with Spisska Nova Ves where he became a Slovakian play-off champion.
The Calgary native was named to the EIHL Second All-star Team this season – the second time he has been selected after being honoured in 2019-2020.
Dow was also the highest scoring defenseman in the regular season over the past year, scoring 14 goals – four more than the next blueliner.
He also led defenders in terms of scoring in season 2019-20 when he again netted 14 times.
Overall this season, Dow contributed a total of 38 points in the league campaign – the third most by a defensemen – and also had three assists in the Challenge Cup, as well as a goal in the play-offs which took his total to 199 points for the club (49 goals and 150 assists).
Head coach Lefebvre was delighted to make Dow his first signing of the summer, saying: “It was an easy decision.
“Drydn is one of the top three or four defensemen in this league, He is such a good character in our room and he is basically a Dundonian now.
“He is the fabric of this club and to get a guy like him back, who is a leader of our team, is key. I know Drydn a lot more now than I did last summer when I came in and we have had a good relationship over the last year as a coach and a captain.
“He is the voice in the room when I do not need to be in there the whole time with the guys and he feeds off everything we want.
“He gets guys in line and he has been a tremendous captain and player for us.”
Lefebvre added: “There is a group of guys that we want to bring back and a good core that we are talking to and negotiating with to make sure they are back in Dundee next season.
“If we can secure more of those guys then we will try to build on the success we had last season and try to win a championship this season.
“Drydn is the key to that, he is pretty much the first import I wanted to get done because he is the captain of our team and to get him for two more years, means we are going to be working closely over those two years to bring a championship to Dundee.”