EBEL becomes more Austrian this year

This evening the EBEL starts into its 10th season since Erste Bank became the league sponsor. Slovanian side Olimipja Ljubljana will host the game against the Vienna Capitals at 19.15h local time.

In recent years HK Acroni Jesenice had financial difficulties throughout almost every season and so the club was forbidden to participate in the 2012-13 EBEL season by the league executives in May 2012 leaving Olimpija Ljubljana the only Slovenian team in the competition. To get an even number of teams the two Austrian clubs EC Dornbirn who are complete newcomers to the league and HC Innsbruck who return after three seasons were added later.

Let's have a look at what happend in the summer and who are going to be the favourites for the new season.

Newcomers EC Dornbirn had a disappointing pre-season by losing all their test games (twice against German 2. Bundesliga participants Schwenningen and Ravensburg each and against Augsburger Panthers from DEL). Probably the team just needs a bit more time to find together as there were many transfers during the summer. Dornbirn added a lot of international experience with signings like Luciano Aquino (ERC Ingolstadt) and Jonathan D'Aversa (Kölner Haie) who are both comming from DEL clubs and former Canadian NHL goalie Patrick DesRochers but also they wanted to get as much players with EBEL experience as possible. Players like forward Danny Bois who had two good seasons in Salzburg recently, Christian Dolezal of the Vienna Capitals along with Nicolas Petrik, Nico Toff (both EC VSV) and Max Wilfan (Graz) add depth to the Dornbirn roster. It seems pretty obvious that Dornbirn will have a tough first season in the league but they could be good for some real surprises.

The second newcomer HC Innsbruck lost their Canadian veteran Rem Murray who was one of the topscorers of the team in recent years as he retired from professional ice hockey. Canadian Craig Switzer (Aalborg, AL-Bank Ligaen), American Jon Insana (Vienna Capitals) and French international Antonin Manavian (Rouen) are going to make the HCI defense better for sure. For their attack they signed American Mike Bartlett who has a lot of experience in the Minor Leagues and Canadian Francis Lemieux who played last seasn for Heilbronn in the 2. Bundesliga in Germany. In the pre-season HCI couldn't yet convice completely and they are maybe going to one of the deeper regions of the league table. 

Current champions EHC Linz extended the contracts of almost all their key players during the off-season so that they again can go into a season with a very competitive roster. Swedish defender Jan-Axel Alavaara who signed with the club just before last year's succesful playoffs retired afterwards. The Canadians Adrian Veideman (Vienna Capitals) and Justin Keler (Salzburg) decided to move inside EBEL. As substitutes Linz managed to sign Americans Andrew Hedlund (DEG Metro Stars) and Brett Engelhardt (Hamburg Freezers) who belonged to the top players in their DEL teams. In the pre-season Linz beat DEL teams München and Straubing showing their already good form. Everything but a playoff qualification would be very disappointing for them.

Finalists EC KAC had few changes in their roster. Austrian veteran Dieter Kalt had to leave the club and Chrtistoph Brandner retired. The two forwards very substituted through Patrick Harand (EC VSV) and Jamie Lundmark who was a long-time player in the NHL and last season played for Dinamo Riga in KHL. In pre-season KAC showed to be as competitive as teams from leagues like DEL or NLA and should be ready for the new campaign.

Graz 99ers lost several key players to Vienna and Klagenfurt including topscorer Zdenek Blatny and goalie Fabian Weinhadl. With guys like defensemen Andy Delmore, Matrin Oraze and Stefan Langwieder or forwards Greg Day, Jean-Michel Daoust and Adam Courchaine they compensated the losses very well.
 
EC VSV released a lot of the Austrians on their roster and filled the empty spots with imports they found mainly on the financially struggling Slovenian sides. The North Americans Jean-Philippe Lamoureux, John Hughes, Brad Cole, Scott Hotham and Justin Taylor all came from Olimpija Ljubljana while Slovenian international Klemen Pretnar signed from Jesenice.

European trophy participant Red Bull Salzburg lost a couple of guys to strnger leagues. Ryan Kavanagh and Brent Aubin signed with DEL side EHC München while Ramzi Abid desided to play for JYP in SM-liiga, Doug Lynch to play for Frölunda in Elitserien and Robbie Earl to try his luck with Rapperswil in the NLA. Goalie Josh Tordjman who is going to play in Asiago was substituted with NHL goalie Alex Auld of the Ottawa Senators. Other important signings are Konstantin Komarek (Luleå HF), Ryan Glenn (KalPa), Ryan Kinasewich (KHL Medvescak Zagreb) and Ross Lupaschek (Jokerit). In their six ET appearances so far Salzburg had a 3-0-0-3 bilance. As always Red Bull is going to try getting back the championship.

The other ET participant from Austria, the Vienna Capitals, lost Nathan Robinson to Kölner Haie (DEL) and changed a couple of guys with Graz 99ers but mainly they could keep their best players in their roster. With Adrian Veideman (Linz) and Josh Soares (Växjö Lakers) two experienced players were added. In European Trophy the Capitals collected 11 points in six games, including a surprise win against KHL team HC Slovan Bratislava. The team is going to play an important role in the next season.

The foreign teams in EBEL are difficult to judge so far but they all seem to be weaker than in previous years letting the race for the title be an Austrian thing. With Ryan Kinasewich, Frank Banham, Greg Day and Vyacheslav Trukhno KHL Medvescak Zagreb lost their four top scorers of the last regular season. Also Joel Prpic who retired from pro hockey was one of the quality players. As always it has to be seen how the young guys like Dennis Bozic (Sundsvall), Nathan Perkovich (Albany) or Anthony Yelovich (Sacred Heart University) will do. A lot is expected of Alex Leavitt (HPK, SM-liiga) and Kyle Greentree (Hershey, AHL). In the pre-seaon the team left a good impression and wants to keep that for the regular season.

In the case of Ljubljana the question will be if they can make up for all the top talented foreigners that left the team in the summer. Most new players were found in the Minor Leagues in North America and low-level European leagues making Olimpija a favourit for one of the lower spots in the table after a not so promising pre-season.

SAPA Fehervar AV19 kept most of their top players, including István Sofron who had a try-out with Lev Praha of the KHL during the pre-season. Their biggest loss is forward Krisztián Palkovics who retired in May but with Frank Banham (signed from Zagreb) they have kept the quality high. As the other foreign teams SAPA is going to have a hard season against the Austrians but who knows? 

Czech side Orli Znojmo could be the surprise team of the season. With Finnish forward Kim Strömberg, experienced Slovak Marek Uram and former OHL player Petr Beranek they had some promising signings. Pre-season was an up-and-down though.

 

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