Slovak Extraliga preview

10 Sep 2014 | Lukas Gonda

The 22th season of Slovak hockey Extraliga begins on Friday 12th with the same clubs as last years.

As in most other European top leagues there are massive rule changes designed by IIHF.

The title will by defended by HC Kosice, the only one team from Slovakia also participating in CHL. Besides HC Kosice HK Nitra, Dukla Trencin, HK Poprad, HC 05 Banska Bystrica, HKM Zvolen, MHC Mountfield Martin, MSHK Zilina, HK 36 Skalica and SHK 37 Piestany are the others participants. Club Slovakia U20 will also participate in Slovak Extraliga for the eight time as a project for preparation of the Slovak junior ice hockey team for the IIHF World U20. Each team will play 54 rounds, 6 times against all other teams. The first 8 teams after the regular season will promote to the playoffs. The last team of the season standings is going to play with the winner of the 1.league in a playout round.

PAST SEASON WINNERS

2014 HC Kosice
2013 HKM Zvolen
2012 HC Slovan Bratislava
2011 HC Kosice
2010 HC Kosice

MOST TIME WINNERS

8x HC Slovan Bratislava
7x HC Kosice
3x Dukla Trencin

BEST ARRIVALS

Lubos BARTECKO (SVK), KLH Chomutov – HK Poprad
Branko RADIVOJEVIC (SVK), HC Slovan Bratislava – Dukla Trencin
Lukas JURIK (SVK), HC Innsbruck – HKM Zvolen
Richard LINTNER (SVK), Dinamo Minsk – Dukla Trencin
Branislav KONRAD (SVK), Heilbronner Falken – Dukla Trencin

BEST DEPARTURES

Robert KRISTAN (SLO), HK Nitra - Pardubice
Rastislav STANA (SVK), HC Kosice – HC Sparta Praha
Tomas MARCINKO (SVK), HC Kosice – Pardubice
Patrick WHITE (USA), HC 05 Banska Bystrica – HC Slovan Bratislava
Roman TOMAS (SVK), MsHK Zilina - Znojmo