Anyang Halla gear up for 2013-2014 Season

After a disappointing exit in the first round of last year's playoffs, Halla has looked to make a number of significant changes to their line-up this season. The first of such changes is in the net. While Son Ho-sung remains on the team, Eum is no longer on the roster and a new face joins the team. Rookie netminder Hyun-ho Hwang will join the team to help support Son.

Halla has also shed its foreign imports letting Jackman and Derlago go. Jackman had 54 points in 41 games last season while Derlago had 71 points in as many games, finish second on the team. it's unclear why they'd let such a productive player go, but with Brock Radunske now a Korean citizen and no longer counting as a foreign import, it opened them up to take a full compliment of fresh faces. 

One of those faces isn't unknown. Dustin Wood will rejoin the team on defense. He previously played a couple of seasons with Halla, but didn't play last season. Wood is joined on defense by Jeff Dimmen. This is Dimmen's first stint in the Asia League. Most recently he played 2 seasons in the AHL for Norfolk and Adirondack, where he averaged about 15 points a season. On forward, Halla has added Mike Testwuide. Testwuide is a right winger who also comes from the AHL. He recently played a little over 2 seasons with Adirondack and Abbotsford. Halla has made other moves on their roster as well. On defense, Yoon-hwan Kim, Seung-yup Lee, Don-ku Lee, and Dong-hwan Kim are no longer with the team. The team has added rookie Jae-hyung Cho to the team on defense. 

Up front, they've seen even bigger changes. Won-jung Kim and Woo-sang Park left mid-season last year, in addition Byung-chun Jung, Jung-hyun Ahn, Min-ho Cho, Geun-ho Kim, and Ji-min Kim have all left the team.Some of these players were very good producers and players for Halla so it will be interesting to see how they develop over the season. To help fill the ranks, they've brought back Tae-hwan Park, and it seems a lot of lesser played players will be getting full time roles. Players like Sang-wook and Kuk-hwan played just under half the season last year, but may see themselves played in every game this year. The team has all the look of one in serious rebuilding mode.

To help guide the team, they chose a new captain on August 19th. #51 Woo-young Kim was chosen to lead the team after the last captain, Woo-jae left early last year. Halla will begin the season September 7th at home against the new team from Korea which is made up of the players who are serving their mandatory military service.

New Captain #51 Woo-young Kim attempts a shot block last season against the Freeblades

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