BRAEHEAD CLAN boss John Tripp insists he won’t be forced into panic buying to fill the last remaining slots in his roster.

Tripp’s lean squad have got off to a flying start in his first few games in charge, firstly beating Manchester Storm on the opening weekend before following that up with a Scottish Elite Cup title last weekend.

There is still room for more bodies in his Clan, though. Former NHL forward Ryan Potulny is due to arrive later this weekend after receiving his visa, but the door is still open in both defensive and forward areas.

However, even though after this weekend we will be six games into the season, Tripp is not getting flustered.

The former German internationalist told SportTimes: “Ryan should be in on Monday. That’ll be nice but he’ll be a couple of weeks behind everyone else.

“He has a lot of experience and can probably catch up a lot quicker but you can’t get in game shape without playing games.

“In terms of bringing players in. I’m not as much concentrating on a forward now, if something comes that I feel we need then I’ll consider it. We get names all the time but I’m not going to put anyone in who doesn’t fit the mould.

“My main concern is getting another D-man, but again it has to be the right guy.

“It’s not easy putting a team together when you are playing catch up, but it’s exciting.”

On Saturday Braehead will take on MK Lightning for the first time ever on league duty before going to Coventry Blaze 23 hours later

“We just want to keep playing the same way,” added Tripp. “Everyone starts off at zero. We have had a short line-up with success, but we need to move on and re-establish ourselves. We want to make a good impact.

“We are still short on experience but what we make up for that with is our work ethic. It’s not about size for us, it’s about speed and if you don’t get your legs moving it’s going to be hard to win a game.

“They understand that. There will be lessons to learn along the way but they are doing a good job. They understand what we are doing and have bought into it. The guys then get hungry and want to see how far we can go with it.”