Sheffield Steelers have signed 28-year-old defenceman Jiri Gula. 

The move to South Yorkshire will be the Czech blue liner’s first foray outside of his home country, having spent his entire career to date with HC Litvinov, first as a member of their junior system before graduating to the senior side.

“Jiri ticks a lot of boxes,” Steelers Head Coach Paul Thompson said. “I needed another right handed shot defenseman to join Davey Phillips and Ryan Martinelli. Now that right-hand side of the D core has the great size we were looking for.

Gula has featured in nearly 400 Czech Extraliga regular season and playoff games since making his senior debut in 2009/10, something Thompson which helped attract Thompson to the 6’3” defenceman.

“Jiri is an experienced player with the quality you would expect playing where he has in the recent past. We aren’t bringing him here to be offensive, he is here to bring size and presence to the back end.

“I like the physical aspect to his game, it’s an added ingredient we were keen to bring in.”