Invicta Dynamos’ new-look roster is nearing completion and head coach Karl Lennon is delighted with their summer’s work.

The fixtures for the 2024/25 season are expected to be confirmed imminently and Lennon added another exciting talent to the squad ahead of the weekend with the arrival of Lithuanian forward Vilius Krakauskas.

Lennon says the squad is “around 95% done” when speaking this week.

With import Stanislav Lascek leaving this summer, Lennon has moved to add 28-year-old Krakauskas to the ranks.

The new recruit has recently spent time with the Romford Buccaneers, playing at the same level at the Mos. Before that, he had played in his native Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden. He’s back after a year out setting up an ice hockey coaching business.

Lennon said: “When we had the news from Stanno that he would be returning home to Slovakia we knew we would have to act on that and it is not easy finding international players that play here in the UK.

“It comes with a lot of coordination and effort to house them and keep them in work and stuff like that whilst they are here and Vilius is someone familiar with this landscape. He has played hockey in our division for four or five seasons and has a really good record while being here.

“There is always an element of risk when bringing in international players from overseas, because you don’t really quite know what they are going to be like, but we have had the fortune to see him play beforehand and misfortune, too, because he has notoriously been a guy who has scored goals against us.

“We can see he is clearly very capable at this level and he is 28 - he is not an old guy by any stretch of the imagination, so not only does he have some years of development himself, he comes with a younger energy than someone like what Stanno did and he is a very different player.

“We will have to accommodate him with the players in a very particular way but it is an exciting time for him and us.”

It’s been a busy few months for the Mos head coach.

Forward Aaron Connolly, 30, is back at his hometown club where he started as a six-year-old. He made his Dynamos debut aged just 13, contributing to the club’s ENL South Championship title success in 2007 and went on to play at Chelmsford, Slough Jets, Basingstoke Bison and since 2018 has captained the Romford Raiders.

New additions include 23-year-old D-man Callum Burnett from the Streatham Redhawks. Lennon said: “An opportunity to bring a player of his quality to our roster couldn’t be missed.”

Cameron Pywell is a 25-year-old forward who has joined from NIHL North 1 team Sheffield Scimitars where he has spent the past three seasons.

Netminder Brad Windebank, 21, joins the Mos from National League side Romford Raiders and will compete with returning homegrown talent Owen Rider.

Louis Colvin is back with the Mos after a season with National League champions Leeds Knights, returning with some crucial higher-level experience behind him.

Signing on again for next season is D-man Gregor McAllan, who heads into a third season with the Mos, and Michael Stokes, who continues with the team he first skated for as an under-16 in 2002.

Joe Stephenson, 26, has been an integral part of the Mos defence since returning to the club in 2022, while long-serving Harrison Lillis, another homegrown talent who captained the Mos last year, remains for another campaign.

Danish forward Mads Thune stays and fellow forward Oli Bronnimann, who returned to ice hockey last season, also stays as do James Laming, Ruskin Springer-Hughes, Tom Soar and Regan O’Neil.

Owen Dell, Brandon Chard and Matty Bell have left as they are going to university in different parts of the country but they are replaced by another batch of youngsters. Four Invicta Colts under-18s are added to the senior roster in forward Evan Chard, D-men Daniel Alabaster - who played 13 games last season - and England youth international Dylan Worthy and goalie Nikolai Divall

Lennon said: “I am very happy with what we have managed to do.

“We are hell-bent on getting the most out of what we have got and we have already started training. We did our first official session last week as a team, which I think is the earliest I have ever come back.

“It is a testament to the guys and their professionalism, they don’t want to just mess around in the summer, they want to get ready.

“Even getting one training session a week for now will inevitably help us in the longer term to be ready for coming into the season in September, that is all we are focused on and I think those sessions will help us massively to get ready.”