Taylor sees a bright future for British Ice Hockey
Sheffield Steelers beat Manchester Storm in the play-off finals at the weekend, bringing the sixth Superleague season to a nail-biting close.
Over the past year two teams have dropped out of the top flight and the league has struggled to gain wider exposure and new sponsors.
If Ian Taylor believes the critics who are forecasting the imminent collapse of the Ice Hockey Superleague, he is not about to admit it.
In the past 12 months the empire over which he presides has shrunk from nine to seven teams following the departure of Cardiff Devils and Newcastle Jesters.
Attendances for the season, with the notable exception of Belfast, have been disappointing.
A five year, multi-million pound television deal has ended up in the High Court.
Superleague's annus horribilis? Not a bit of it.
"We've had a few difficult moments," Taylor admitted to BBC Sport Online with startling understatement.
"We've suffered the consequences of other peoples' actions, first with our TV contract.
"Then we had a couple of owners do a few things they probably shouldn't have done. They've been dealt with in their own way.
"It has been a difficult year but the problems have been hiccups and don't impact on the actual business."
While conceding that the difficulties of the past season have probably set the Superleague's development plans back by a year, Taylor denied that the ISL has been at best treading water this season.
"I think the league has made some pretty good progress," he said.
Fists
"We've got a couple of clubs in profit this year. We've got a lot of good news in terms of inward investment.
"Some of the board of directors would think we actually made a lot of progress because we got rid of one or two bad eggs and we're introducing one or two very good ones.
"There's been some excellent ice hockey this season.
2We've got the "goons" out of the game and got rid of the people who really couldn't play a lot of ice hockey but were very good with their fists.
"We also succeeded this year in organising a competition with the German DEL which gave ice hockey fans a different perspective of the sport in Europe."
Among Superleague coaches, one of the most common complaints this season has been that the £400,000 salary cap is too low to fill a bench with quality players - especially when key signings are sidelined by injuries.
Taylor, however, insisted the wage limit is vital to protect the stability of the league.
"Take Nottingham. They had three more players this year than last. They ended in a better position in the league and spent less money," he said.
"The wage cap works.
"It works because it makes teams profitable. We're not the football league and we're certainly not the Premiership where you can afford spiralling wages.
"That's the quickest way to finish off professional ice hockey in this country."
The last thing the ISL needs is a repeat of last year's "Summer of Discontent", when pre-season preparations were overshadowed by a stream of bad news for the league.
At the moment Ian Taylor is giving little away, but he insisted the off-season would not be dull.
"We'll have good franchise news over the summer with a couple of new owners who will be really, really interesting.
If I said I was bringing in a Manchester United of ice hockey to get involved in Superleague you'd all get excited but that's the sort of news you're going to be hearing very shortly.
"The Ahearne Trophy is confirmed for next season and a new competition involving some other teams for Europe is going forward for approval."
And in the longer term?
"In my view we should see Superleague running at twelve to fourteen teams by 2005."
Ian Taylor is clearly not a man to dwell on the negative for long.