Finally got a chance to catch up with Karl Taylor today to discuss the Reign’s two newest signees, Todd Jackson and Dan Leslie.

Here’s what he had to say …

On Dan Leslie:
He played two years professionally in the SPHL, and he’s an accomplished heavyweight-type player.

We wanted to take pressure off of David (Walker). That was definitely the guy who felt he had to [fight] at times. He’ll still do some of that because he likes that, but we wanted to alleviate it from him. Dan’s still got to make the club, but we’re definitely trying to become a tougher brand of hockey.

[The SPHL] is based in Florida, and the hockey’s just OK, but there is the odd kid that comes out of there and does well. The South Carolina (Stingrays) called up a goalie [Ian Vigier] when they lost both their goalies, and he did well for them. I’ve never seen a game, but it’s a tough, physical brand of hockey. If you’re signing a kid like Dan Leslie, that’s a good place to look. Ryan MacGregor started there, signed him when we were short-handed in Reading.

On Todd Jackson:
Todd’s a little disappointed with his season. He’s a motivated player. We have higher expectations for what we need from Todd. So does he. A couple injuries pulled him down. At times he was a top performer for us, at times he wasn’t. He’s motivated to fix that. We’ll see how he does.

Todd’s going to dictate his ice time by his play. I don’t envision him in any specific role; he will determine what ice and what role he has.