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Emotional times but Haywood keen to depart Knights on perfect high
Yorkshire Evening Post
|April 11, 2025
Regardless of whatever happens on Sunday, it is going to be an emotional night at Elland Road Ice Arena.
The hope for Leeds Knights fans is that they will be celebrating their team's passage through to the NIHL National Play-off Final Four weekend at Coventry's SkyDome Arena-where they will be one step closer to landing an unprecedented treble.
But there is one other reason why Sunday evening will be a tear-filled occasion for the vast majority of the people inside 'The Castle'.
After three hugely successful years, the final Group A play-off clash against Peterborough Phantoms will be Matt Haywood's final game in front of a home crowd.
Having played a major role in the team winning three league titles, a play-off crown and, finally, earlier this year, a National Cup, the popular 34-year-old will be hanging up his skates.
Haywood's exit will leave a huge hole on the Knights' roster for the 2025-26 campaign, but his legacy will last for a long time.
This story is from the April 11, 2025 edition of Yorkshire Evening Post.
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