With new logo and new name starts Slovak Tipsport league

Photo source: FCB/Richard Lintner

It will be already the 23rd season of Slovak hockey league when the teams start competing for the national championship on Thursday the 10^th September with the same clubs as last year. For a long time there was a speculation if HC Slovan Bratislava will return to Slovakia's highest league due to financial reasons but finally the team remains in Russian-based KHL.

The highest men's hockey league in Slovakia changed its name from Slovak Tipsport Extraleague to Slovak Tipsport League. New head of Pro hokej s.r.o. (the company which runs Slovak Tipsport League) Richard Lintner presented also a new logo of the league with a slogan freely translated as „Hey, we are going on hockey“. The primary objective of the new chairman is to increase the attendance of the league which is still somewhat in the shadow of the neighbouring Czech Republic and the KHL of course with Slovan Bratislava as Slovakia's sole team in that league.

The title will have to be defended by HC Kosice. Besides last season's champions also HK Nitra, HC 05 Banska Bystrica, HKM Zvolen, Dukla Trencin, HK Poprad, HK 36 Skalica, MHC Martin, MsHK Zilina and SHK 37 Piestany will participate. Slovakia U20 will play against each team twice in first half of the season as a project for preparation of the Slovak junior ice hockey team for the U20 IIHF World Championship. This keeps the league at 10 regular participants plus the guest team Slovakia U20 as 11th member.

The first 8 teams after the regular season qualify for the playoffs. Another important change comes regarding relegation. The two last teams from Tipsport League and the two first teams from First League (one level below Tipsport League) will play against each other in a group to find the two teams playing in Tipsport league the following year.

Notable transfers in

Jan Tabacek - GC Küsnacht Lions – MHC Martin

Jakub Gasparovic – Pardubice – Dukla Trencin

Tomas Bulik – Slovan Liberec – MsHK Zilina

Juraj Majdan – HC Litvinov – HC 05 B.Bystrica

Tomas Slovak - Brynäs IF - HC Kosice

Notable transfers out

Gabriel Spilar – HC Kosice – Vaasan Sport

Branislav Konrad – Dukla Trencin – HC Olomouc

Tomas Sykora – HK Poprad  - PSG Zlin

Lukas Jurik - HKM Zvolen – Slavia Praha

Roman Tomanek – HK Nitra – Ertis Pavlodar

Last winners

2014/15 – HC Kosice

2013/14 – HC Kosice

2012/13 – HKM Zvolen

2011/12 – HC Slovan Bratislava

2010/11 – HC Kosice

Tweets by @eurohockey