Teams are shown in alphabetical order by Division

POOL A PREVIEWS

The two-time champions will make their return and go for the three-peat with a line-up that

still boasts an amazing lineup just like previous years. Ibrahim Hindy and Naiem Malik are men

on a mission to keep this train going and pretty much all their players are all-in. Ali Noroozi

makes his return as his astonishing display of offence will once again be tested against some of

the bigger and brighter stars of Pool A. Omar Sabri doesn’t seem to be slowing down even

though he’s been dogged with injuries, but after taking part at the ISBHF Worlds this past

summer, it doesn’t seem to faze him one bit. The Army has a formidable support cast with

Gehad Al-Hundi, Yousuf Soliman, Sophian Mian and Faisal Shahabuddin just to name a few. The

biggest change however and this could be a dealbreaker, is in net. Veteran Sharaz Yunis and

youngster Shoaib Hasan Shaikh will share duties and both are not proven at all at this level. The

Green Wall MVP Aneel Anwar Nauth will not make the trip so this could pose a huge challenge

for the defensive core of this team and if the goaltending does stay consistent, the Army could

be heading back to the finals.

For the first seven Salaam Cup tournaments, the Greenbirds were under the bright lights at

Malton Arena either hoisting the holy grail or watching someone else do it. But since 2011, they

haven’t even tasted the finals and have always bowed out in the semi’s for whatever reason.

This is not sitting well with Osman Buttar and has weighed heavily on the minds of pretty much

the core Greenbird roster. With some of their notable veterans not even on this year’s edition,

it’s all up to Osman as he has now become one of the aged superstars on the team. The

Greenbirds still however boast one of the most powerful lineups with Bilal Buttar and Ammer

Askary coming back. Also, Sami Chaudhry and Sajjid Ayubi and of course, the ever-so talented

Munavar Hamdani who’s competitive spirit will ooze throughout the bench this year. Goalie

Yasar Razvi is making his return to the Green machine to maybe bring back some of that lost

glory. This is a huge year for this team as anything less than lifting that Cup will deem an utter

failure and the future of this club could come into question.

For the second year in a row, a Pool B championship team will make the move to Pool A.

Saracens did it last year, now it’s the Mavericks turn. Shoaib Rangrez does not want it to just be

a training session, he is serious to go as far as this team can take him. He does have the tools

and did some off-season recruiting as well to get it done. Big man Emmad Khawaja will don the

orange and black and will be playing some heavy minutes. Along with him, the natural athlete

Shoaib Khan along with Syed Ahmed will definitely be giving opposing teams enough bits of

frustration in their zones. Young stars Omar Husain along with Aadil Kadva were top on

Rangrez’s list to bring along and these moves show how serious he is. One of the biggest

improvements however has been in net as Anas Kadva will be between the pipes for the Mavs

and if he’s on his game, he can be an unbeatable acrobat in there. There isn’t a lot of pressure

for the Mavs to perform, but the team is putting that pressure on themselves as the Malton

crowd will definitely play a part in their success.

2005: That was the year a rag tag group of guys got together for the Salaam Cup inaugural

season and shocked the crowd shutting out a well-refined Greenbirds team to hoist the Salaam

Cup. Since then, a couple of finals showing here and there, changes to the management

structure, new jerseys, even taking a year off to retool. Nothing has worked to bring the Cup

back to the Markham/Lawrence region. Imran Patel was on that ’05 squad and his persistence

is nothing short of extraordinary to try and compete to higher levels. And this year, he means

business. ML staple Umar Chichwadia was let go and International superstar goaltender Turab

Bokhari has been summoned. This move could be the move that puts them right to the top, but

Bokhari cannot do it all. The men in front from Aamir Talati, Samir Patel, Safraz Motala and

Mohammed Mankrod will be counted upon to score and score a lot. The defence, however, has

always been another question mark and Suleman Nakhuda, Faheem Vawda and newly acquired

Nauman Abbasi need to play wtih a little more energy and urgency as the blueline has lacked

this quite a bit in years past. The Salaam Cup is already witnessing the stock drop with the

Greenbirds and are counting on this year for both these teams to renew that famed rivalry.

After winning the Pool B championship in 2013, the Saracens went for it and moved to Pool A

last year. It didn’t work out very well as right off the bat, they got a rude awaking from the ML

Warriors in their 1st game. Furqan Salam hopes to not repeat that type of performance by

injecting a little more offence and ensuring that players take this stint seriously. Salam did some

wheeling and dealing near the deadline and added Sufyan Shaikh, Huseyin Sami and Zain Syed

to round out their offensive lines. The Saracens do have the offense in capable hands with

Salam himself, Umair Awan and Ahmad Hathout. Their defence is also pretty sound with Belal

Hafeez and Junaid Karodia in that department, but lost the towering Yusuf Buttar to the

Greenbirds B team. And Zayd Agjee can play some stalwart goaltending so the Saracens need

not worry about him. In the end, it’s all about whether the team can get over their 1st year

jitters and play some hard, clean hockey which has lacked somewhat looking over their clubs

history. Players such as Salman Syed and Akber Jilany will be counted upon to have a breakout

tournament as lot of Pool A teams have beefed up in all aspects.

It’s becoming a bitter pill to swallow for the Shaolin Monks as three Salaam Cup finals

appearances has only produced one Cup win. The two in a row have been defeats at the hands

of the Green Army and Yusuf Azmi and crew just do not want to go through that again. This

year’s brand is no different from previous years except for two glaring changes. First is the

growth and improvement of the younger Hussein Badreddine as he seems to be getting bigger

each and every year and now will be a big part of this teams younger core along with Abdul

Wahab Khawaja and Adil Patel. The other big change was signing the rights to wily veteran

Zuhair Kanji who will for the first time be wearing a jersey without the ML Warriors logo on it.

With Kanji’s presence, the team looks destined to take a trip to the finals once again.

Muhammad Sibtain is the the backbone of this team and with the Khan brothers in Isa, Idris and

Aadil providing much needed sandpaper and strength up front, opposing teams will be in tough

penetrating through this Red Menace. The Monks need to make a statement this year that

2012 was no fluke and will require all players to step up for that to happen.

Another Ontario/Quebec collaboration makes its return to the Salaam Cup as Zubair Wahid and

Khalid Mughal team up once again. Not a lot was known about what this team could

accomplish last year other than the fact that well-known goalie Kaz Akbar will be minding the

Cubed Cage once again. The Whitehawks competed game in and game out, but just couldn’t

really muster any type of meaningful wins and therefore were eliminated early in the medal

rounds. Watch young gun Ozair Wahid as he is an up and coming star and will be relied upon

heavily to help in the offensive category. The jury is still out on the Whitehawks if they can still

hold up against the likes of some of the other known brands in Pool A. Biggest challenge for

Mughal was how to get the team to gel due to the long distances between numerous players.

This is will all come to light come Friday night as they face a tough test right from the get-go

against the ML Warriors. Akbar’s goaltending usually holds up quite well in these pressure-

packed situations, but the defence and offence will be under the microscope to get them out of

the 7th spot and maybe pull off an upset.

POOL B PREVIEWS

The Donlands community has always been a staple at Salaam Cup, but other than the one

championship they won at a Juniors tournament back in 2014, there hasn’t been anything else

to cheer about. Huzaifa Mahida is leading the charge here with a much more younger and

energetic group that will hopefully be able to see some successes where many of their

counterparts have failed to do so. It will be a difficult task as there isn’t an established veteran

on this team to keep the players in check nor be that voice in the dressing room. Therefore,

Mahida himself and also Mohammed Chohan will have to pick up the slack. Some notable

players to look out for are Waseh Siddiqui and Jameel Attayee who have proven to be the

catalysts in garnering attention from opposing teams. Donlands main issue will be how to keep

at bay some of the bigger players from opposing Pool B teams and how will the defence

perform in this tough tournament atmosphere.

While the Juniors of Donlands are busy bringing in a team, the more veteran and refined

Donlands squad – DMR – will be dropping from Pool A to compete in Pool B. With their

relentless play against some of the bigger named teams last year, they have automatically

become one of the favourites to go all the way at this year’s dance. Ibrar Akram and company

take the helm once again and he pretty much is supplanting that team from 2014 into 2015

bringing back stars such as the Abu-Ali brothers, Uzair – make sure you keep your head up –

Motala and goaltender Sohail Okadia. A suprise addition this year will be the work horse Arif

Bijabhai who seems to always give teams a spark on offence. This is a make or break year for

Donlands as like the previous posting, haven’t had much to celebrate and will try to get back to

the Pool B finals as they couldn’t get it done against the Saracens a few years back. They have

the firepower to put it in behind other goaltenders, but the question remains whether Okadia

can sustain a healthy tournament so nothing goes behind him.

Each and every year Firasath Ali is determined to ice a competitive team and his commitment

to do that is outstanding to do just that. Unfortunately due to some unforeseen circumstances,

some players decided to jump ship at the last moment and join teams up in the upper echelons

of Pool A. With that, Ali had to struggle mightily to fill out his roster in the moments before the

tournament begins. With Chicago resident Naveed Masood once again making the trek and

with a big name in Ali Khawaja in net, the team will still have a challenging time during this

tournament to find their scoring touch in order to get past some of the more faster and skilled

teams in Pool B. Vets such as Nayu Akbar and Ali Ispahany will give the team some size and

strength and a late pickup of Mohamed Adel on the blueline definitely adds more positives to a

defence-first squad such as this. Again, scoring will be relied heavily on players such as

Ispahany and company and if that doesn’t start clicking early in games, then they may see them

on the same train as last year.

Pronounced: [ih-lizh-ee-uh m]

Definition: Any place or state of perfect happiness; paradise.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about this team. Playing in their 2nd straight

tournament with Yasir Hussain in charge, this team will look a lot like the Malton Slappers of old

with players such as Azhar Hussain, Mazhar Hussain, Mudassar Hussain, Saajid Bhayat and

Yasser Habib in the lineup. This team surprised many with their average age of 34 and making it

to the semi-finals before losing a heartbreaker to the Tpark Youngstars. Don’t count out these

grizzled veterans as they will play their hearts out and be out to prove that there is still some

fuel left in the tank and could possibly make it to the semifinals again or even further if a

bounce or two happens in their favour. Yasir is a big presence in net with his calm positional

play and being alongside his brothers could add to his motivation. Others such as Haris Mallick,

Adnan Hashmi, Irfan Hassan and Imran Lakhanpal all round out – no pun intended – an Elysium

team with a big contingent of bodies that will give a lot of difficulties for opposing players to get

around them. The team has the experience and knowledge as to what needs to be done to get

into the win column, but it remains to be seen what their scoring will be like as you need goals

to move ahead. Players such as Mudassar Hussain, Salman Alvi and Shahraiz Khan will be

counted upon to perform in that department.

Who are the GA Lite? Well we shall soon see. Rehan Sarwar has taken the task to assemble a B-

Pool version of the reigning two-peat champions Green Army with a mix of young and

experienced, Montreal and Ontario blood, in order to push ahead in the years to come at the

Salaam Cup. Some familiar names stand out on this roster such as Shan Malik with his pesky

defensive skills, Awaiz and Rizwan Rajput who possess some size and strength and Markham’s

own Hamza Shakil who will bring a plethora of experience especially since he was chosen to

represent Pakistan at the ISBHF Worlds this past summer. The GA Lite however, is not just

featuring players from Ontario and Quebec. Two individuals will be making the 4,500km trek

from British Columbia as Waseem Khalil and Rishaad Abbas will join the cast to give the team a

huge spark upfront. Khalil and Abbas were part of the BC team that went to the Pool B finals a

few years ago against Scarborough while Sarwar will provide the proper education as he is

coming off a Salaam Cup championship last year. How will this team fare is a good question as

they are coming in with a smaller roster and will need all players to be fresh and ready

especially after their arduous travel schedule.

No, the Greenbirds haven’t dropped down to Pool B. They, too, want to develop some of their

younger players - and also keep some of the senior ones in shape. Ijaz Chaudhry who was a

legend on the Greenbird blueline for many years and many championship teams decided to test

some of their young up and coming prospects. Names such as Humza Chaudhry, Danial Umar

and goalie Zakariya Bandaisha all have an average age of 16. While some former Pool A

Greenbirds who decided the rigors of Pool A is not for them such as Ijaz himself, Ahmed

Chaudhry, Naveed Mohammed and Camran Baig will definitely give a solid veterans presence

and tutelage to the younger core. Dilshad Alvi, former goalie who is remarkably coming out of

retirement after being part of the glory days of the ‘Birds many years ago will also join the crew

and seems to have a renewed sense of energy for this new brand of Greenbird hockey. The

difference between this team and the Pool A team however will be the level of pressure. There

is none of that with this squad as their main focus will be just going out, competing and using it

as training grounds. But opponents may still want to take this team seriously as just the veteran

core on this team is capable of carrying the squad deep into the medal rounds.

Another new club at the Salaam Cup will be the Kings led by Amir Multani. This team represents

a good mix of players that possess a lot of experience and skill. The team is not overly

aggressive and will have to use their sound judgement against some of the more faster teams in

Pool B. Assad Darr is a notable name from the Cambridge, Ontario area that possesses size and

soft hands to give them that scoring. Nadeem Qureshi who is getting up there in age plays a

calm and cool style of offence and has a knack around the net. Sajid Khan has a good amount of

experience playing in the back-end along with Ali Murtaza and Wakaas Khan. Ahmed Mobin has

the skillset in net, but hasn’t proven himself yet to be that number one goalie to take the team

to the promised land. The Kings are going to be in tough being the new kid on the block as they

will face teams that have gelled for many years. The defence looks fairly sound but the

elements that will give them success will be their goaltending and scoring which right now is

difficult to predict with a new team.

After a stunning Pool B Championship, some of the big names of the Mavericks opted to move

to Pool A to test the waters there. But some of the lesser known Mavericks are still taking a

crack at the Pool B crown. Faiz Vaid and Mohamed Kazi still possess a lineup that is fast and

furious and is able to give any opponents fits during the game. Zahid Panchbaya who broke into

the Salaam Cup as a young gun will now be counted upon as some veteran presence along with

Zubair Patel. A lot of the youngsters will be seeing plenty of playing time and will be counted

upon to keep the pressure in the opposing zone. Sufyan Kazi is a prospect that has the scoring

touch as long as he stays away from penalty trouble. Sufyaan Shaikh’s calm presence will also

be a boon to this team and his vision on the floor can really create opportunities. The Mavs in

the Pool B are young and not as refined as some of the other bigger named teams in Pool B and

will have to rely on a full team effort to go far into the medal rounds.

One of the favourites to get to the Pool B finals is this team. Scarborough’s repertoire as one of

the more skilled clubs will be put to the test once again. After a dismal showing last year,

Shuaib Bulbulia and Shezaad Shaikh feel their lineup could get them back to lifting the Pool B

Cup. A lot of the names are familiar as Fayaz Sindha still has the prowess and experience on the

bluelinee with Shuaib Bulbulia, Atif Sufi and Hasanji Patel providing the offence. Shezaad will

most likely man the twine tent and he possesses good vision while he’s in there. Rounding out

the offence are big man Ismail Dawood and Shadab Patel who are slowly becoming the faces of

this squad. Scarborough however, plays a full team game and needs everyone to play at their

top level as the tournament goes on. Something that has been lacking the last few times with

no finals appearances to show for it. This teams rag-tag mentality will have to be much more

refined as teams are slowly creeping up and probably past them in the game management

aspect therefore Bulbulia and company will be hard pressed to get his team to play a much

more cohesive game if they want to relive the glory days.

One of the most electric and exciting teams to watch is this team in Pool B. Last year, it was the

Mavericks that stopped them in their tracks in the finals and therefore had to settle for the title

of finalists. Now that the Mavericks – or most of them – have moved onto Pool A, this team

could be the frontrunner in hoisting the Pool B Madina Cup. Most of the players are returning,

but two of the biggest changes are on the back end. Ismail Khota with his tenacious defence

and booming slapshot will dawn the Yellow and white while in goal, the legendary Umar

Chichwadia makes his debut in Pool B after 9 years for the Pool A ML Warriors. Not sure how

Yusuf Memon made that that move, but let’s refer to him as the Muslim Alex Anthopoulos.

Tpark has been known for their fast and furious display of offensive prowess with Memon

himself, Sufyan Jogiat, Muneeb Ashfaq and Nabeel Abdullatif to head that department. With

potent firepower up front, a capable blueline and now a future hall-of-fame goalie in

Chichwadia, this Pool A Cup could be theirs to lose.

The End