Guildford Flames make classy gesture to all-time club legend

Guildford Flames have announced that they will retire the number 22 jersey to mark Paul Dixon’s long-standing contributions to the club.

The 51-year-old began his quarter century plus of service to the Flames in the 1999-2000 season, joining from Newcastle Vipers.

Upon his arrival, he was made alternate captain, before being awarded the captaincy a year later after picking up the Alan Weeks Trophy for the best British defencemen.

During his time at the Surrey-based outfit, Dixon was chosen for the British National League’s first all-star team on three occasions in 2001, 2004 and 2005, as well as the English Premier Ice Hockey League’s first all-star team in 2006 and 2007.

Dixon’s coaching duties with the Flames began whilst he was still in the midst of his playing career. He became assistant coach under Stan Marple in the 2005/06 season, and took over the reins as head coach upon Marple’s exit the following season.

After claiming the Premier Cup in 2009/10, he hung up his skates in 2010 to focus solely on head coaching duties, ending his playing career as Guildford Flames’ all-time appearance maker with 928, and the 4th highest scorer with 113 goals, 500 assists and 613 points.

Since then, he has steered the club to numerous successes, which include the playoff crown in 2011, back-to-back league and cup victories from 2011 to 2013, the cup and playoff double in the 2015/16 season, and the Elite League Patton Conference crown in the 2018/19 campaign.

This season, Dixon became the club’s winningest coach of all time with 614 victories during his tenure.

To commemorate this achievement, Guildford Flames will retire his iconic #22 jersey prior to their clash against Nottingham Panthers on Saturday.

Featured image credit: Scott Wiggins

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