SINCE the National Hockey League was established in 1917 there have only been enough British-born players to have taken to the ice to form two full rosters, 44.

Of that elite few, only six have played in goal and even fewer are actually a product of the British youth system.

However, that did not prevent Swindon Wildcats netminder Stevie Lyle from trying to buck the trend at the tender age of 17.

Having blazed a trail in the first season of the Super League with the Cardiff Devils, gaining the MVP (most valuable player) honour during their league winning season, Lyle was given the chance to step across the pond when he was drafted into the Ontario Hockey League, one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues in North America, with the Detroit-based Plymouth Whalers.

The move wasn’t all that Lyle had dreamed of, though, and it soon turned sour, with the Welsh-born netminder returning back to Cardiff after just a year.

Looking back, though, the 35-year-old does not regret it.

“I went over to the USA but things didn’t really work out for me there,” he said.

“At that point I think everybody was thinking the only way I was going to go was the NHL and it is a different ball game over there.

“I was promised a lot of things, I went over and I played one or two games and then there was another guy who had been drafted by an NHL team who came back into the team.

“Over there if you are contracted to an NHL team you have to play those guys because the teams have spent the money on them and so forth, so that sort of pushed me out of the number one spot.

“Don’t get me wrong, he was a good goalie, his name was Robert Ash, and he did go on to play in the NHL and do well for himself.

“You are only allowed two import spots and obviously I was classed as an import over there and the other guys that were there were already drafted. One was to Carolina and the other was to Colorado, so I knew my days were done.”

After just six games with the Whalers Lyle dropped down a level to play with Kindersley Kippers in tier two.

He did well there and helped to transform the basement-dwellers into a team that made the semi-finals of the play-offs.

However, it was not what Lyle wanted and he was yearning to be playing first-team hockey back home.

“I look back and it is a shame how fast it all worked out. There were some great points but the low point was obviously going to the USA,” he added.

“Maybe if I had gone to a different team, but I thought that Detroit was a good place to play and I knew the goalie coach there.

“I did have the option to go back the following season to a league called the WHL but it was hard for me because having played in such a high league, even though it was a top junior league in the world, it was a level down.

“You were treated more as a professional when you are playing with the Devils at that point, having to carry guys’ bags and having a slice of pizza if they leave you any is a bit of a kick in the face.

“Everyone has to do it and I am glad I did it, just because I would have always thought ‘what if I didn’t go to the OHL’. If I had stayed in Britain and I could have maybe gone to a higher league.”

Lyle returned to his home town where he had first got the taste for ice hockey at the age of six.

Working at his dad’s newsagents at weekends, which was a stone’s throw from where the Cardiff Devils played at the time, Lyle would often go along to the public skating sessions.

Having joined the junior programme he found a shortage of goalies, giving him his best route into the sport.

“The first season I started playing when I was six-and-a-half/seven and they needed a goalie so I put a pair of cricket pads on and went from there,” said Lyle.

“They needed a goalie and it was one of those things. As soon as I put the pads on, I just seemed to do okay that session and everyone was saying that I should be their goalie. So I gave it a go and obviously I am still in goal at the age of 35.

“I started to develop at quite a young age and there weren’t that many goalies around the Cardiff area so I would stay on the ice for three or four hours at a time because they didn’t have any goalies. I was lucky enough to always keep practising with higher levels.”

The Devils’ coaches kept a close eye on him as one of the few young netminders in the area and it wasn’t long before he was signing for the club he had followed for just £12.50 a week at the age of 14.

It was a penalty save, for which Lyle has become known for over the decades, during training that handed him his first start.

“It all happened really fast from there,” explained Lyle.

“The Devils the season before won the league so they went into a continental European Cup, in which every year they would get beat by quite a bit because there were top Russian teams there.

“This was over in Tilburg, over in Holland, I was still only 14. We weren’t expected to win a game or anything it was just about experience for guys and there were only two imports in the league at that point.

“The day before we went, we were on the ice practising a penalty shoot-out and the coach turned around and said ‘Stevie, if you stop this next shot you are starting tomorrow.’ “I was like ‘yeah, okay,’ thinking nothing of it. Luckily enough I stopped it and he was true to his word and I ended up starting that game. We won that game and that should never have happened.

“As soon as we got the puck we were literally just icing it every time so I think we just bored them to death to be honest.

“We had a day off the next day and come the second game we were playing the hosts Tilberg. The starting goalie was a gentleman called Jason Wood, so they were like ‘well done Stevie but it isn’t going to happen twice in a row’. He started the game.

“I think we let two or three goals in quickly but there was a shot come in that went through his cage and cut his eye open and knocked him out so I ended up going back in goal.

“I think we ended up losing that game 4-3 but come the last game he kept me in there and we beat another Russian team, so we ended up being the first British team to ever qualify for the next stage of the European Cup.

“Obviously there was quite a lot of press around, especially because I was only 14, and then it just kept going.”

When Lyle returned from the States he spent a couple of years back with the Devils before moving to Manchester Storm because the Cardiff side were having financial difficulties.

But Manchester went bankrupt during Lyle’s second season and he returned to Cardiff again before making a move to Guildford Flames, an experience he did not enjoy.

Lyle made a final move to join long-term friend Mike Ellis at Bracknell Bees before embarking on a European adventure with Appiano in the Italian second league and then Morzine-Avoriaz-Les Gets.

“I think it was just to give my career a bit of a push, I was always with GB and so on, but it is weird. There are not that many positions around the world,” said Lyle.

“I know there are a lot of hockey teams but they are only carrying two goalies and there are not many goalies that move every year. Being a player is a bit easier than finding a spot as a goalie.

“I did get offered to go back for another two years in Italy but I decided it would be nice if I could push myself into a higher league, which happened.

“I went to Morzine in the French Alps and we won the league that year, the first time they had ever done it.

“That was great as well because we had ski passes in our contract. We didn’t train for the evening so in the morning if it was a nice day we were up to the slopes.”

With Lyle’s son starting school he called an end to his European tour and returned to Basingstoke Bison before testing himself back in the Elite League with Belfast Giants.

It was the draw of his family that brought him back to Cardiff and, after another year in Basingstoke, Ryan Aldridge brought him to Swindon.

Alongside his club career, Lyle has enjoyed an unprecedented 20 years with the national side.

The goalie had only been playing with Cardiff for a year when he earned his first call-up and he grabbed it with both hands.

“I was 15 when I got my first call-up to the GB senior team,” added Lyle, who has come out of international retirement at the request of Swindon-based boss Pete Russell.

“It was a World Championship tournament, but it was a tournament where the team were already out and it was the last game. Peter Woods was the coach at the time and he gave me the chance and it was against Belarus. I will never forget, we ended up winning that game 4-2.

“I don’t know how many caps I have got to be honest but every time you play it is a great experience.

“Most years I have been with GB, but the later years I have had other things going on and I am a true believer that you need to bring development through.

“They need to be in those situations. The reason I put my name back in the hat this year was because Pete Russell asked me to cover in case Stephen Murphy is not back.

“We will see, he has been back on the ice, but I think he is hurting again so we will just see how it goes.

“It will be nice to see all the boys again and be on the ice nearly every day as a professional should be, but if Murphy is back that is great.”

Lyle, in the twilight of his career now, often has to bat away questions from the media on when his impending retirement might be.

He had fooled journalists last year with an announcement of hanging up his gloves, only to return and, now that he has taken the head coach role of the Swindon Wildcats for next season, he has hinted that his impressive career could be elongated even further.

“I don’t know how long it will last for. I was curious about how it was going to work out, as far as will I be a good coach and will I enjoy the role,” he said.

“I think myself and Steve Nell (Wildcats’ general manager) are going to see how this season goes and if it goes well and I can get a team that is maybe a bit more defensive and not take as many shots then that might help me go a bit longer as well.”