Keeping heads afloat: Slovak hockey's long summer

As the long summer days slowly start to wind down, and players and coaches alike return to the rinks, it's time to start looking back on the summer that was, which in turn was one of conflict and strife in many corners of Slovakia's domestic hockey market. A number of teams have changed divisions, while money problems created by the Eurozone crisis really bit hard on a number of the smaller market teams. However, even some of the big names in the Extraliga were touched by financial woes, with the Poprad side still not out of the water as of yet.

So let us start with the Extraliga, which saw arguably it's biggest club depart the league in search of bigger and better things. HC Slovan Bratislava, after winning their first championship for four years decided that the Extraliga was no longer for them, and managed to make the jump to the KHL. There had been rumblings for a while that the club from the capital was looking to expand outwards from the Extraliga, and with the success that they had not only on the ice, but off the ice after the reconstruction of the Ondrej Nepala stadium turned out to be a smart move. With increased capacity of over 10,000, and spirits high after the Slovak Extraliga championship, as well as the silver medal achieved by the national team, Slovan are in a good place at the moment in Slovakian terms, although their tight budget constrictions could hinder their KHL form.

Who knows what the future holds for Košice
Photo: Ziakoo.sk/hokejportal.sk

HC Košice, who have been the most successful club in Slovakia over the past five years will be smarting after their run of three straight championships game to an end in 2012. Košice, who have apparently been looking into "two central European alternatives" this off-season look like they are set to try and reclaim their Slovak Extraliga crown, but the future after that is far less clear. At the start of the summer, before Slovan made the jump to the KHL, a proposal was made to allow Slovan and Košice into the Czech Extraliga, creating a "Czechoslovak Extraliga". However, this proposal was rejected by 13 of the 14 teams, citing extra travel costs as a key concern (link). A couple of years ago, the prospect of a Slovak team joining the EBEL would have been laughable, but with a weaker Extraliga after the departure of Slovan, it may just be that Košice could end up in the Central European EBEL after all. Featuring teams from Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia, the EBEL has spawned into a mid-tier league which is starting to grow in terms of the calibre of players joining the league, which may just make it more appealing for the side from Eastern Slovakia. It certainly seems that the KHL is out of reach. At least for now.

For Dukla Trenčín, most of their concerns have been around having a rink to play in. A huge ammonia leak in the main arena has rendered the rink unsafe for now, but there were major issues over whether or not the local government will have the funds available to embark on the repair work, which was estimated to be at €55,000. However, the city of Trenčín have seemed to have taken control of the Pavol Demitra Arena as of late, after the team had been forced to practice on the rink owned by Marian Gaborik, as well as the local rink in nearby Dubnica. Mayor Richard Rybníček has offered to lease the arena to the Dukla club for just one euro for training sessions and matches, as well as putting up the money for the repair costs, in order to secure Extraliga hockey in Trenčín for the coming season. The city claims that the arena will be repaired by late August (link).

Poprad went from KHL & Slovak hockey to
almost no hockey this offseason
Photo: easternconferences.wordpress.com

However, other clubs have not been so lucky. Poprad, who have been reeling following the move of the HC Lev franchise to Prague after just one year in the Slovak mountain city have had huge financial problems in the run up to the coming season. After their Extraliga season, all contracts with players to the club expired, leaving the club without any players, as executive director Tibor Turan claimed, "I will not sign any players, if I do not have the money" (link). A lack of sponsorship, especially within Poprad has left the team strapped for cash, as Turan claimed that last season, 65% of the teams sponsorship money came from outside Poprad, and this summer seems to have changed little. However, the latest news coming out of Poprad is that they will be able to field a team for next season, as they have already scheduled pre-season games, as well as being included on the fixture lists for the coming season.

Another with money problems going into the season was MHC Martín. One of the smallest clubs in the Extraliga, Martín, who have missed the playoffs for the last two seasons have struggled to keep a hold of a number of their players, but finally this week started to begin pre-season preparations with a new head coach Róbert Pukalovič, featuring a team mainly made up of junior and local players. Despite this, it does seem that  Martín have managed to gather enough money together for the coming season, although their prospects are quite bleak. It is also worth mentioning HK Skalica, who have entered an agreement with Slovan which will allow a number of players to be loaned down to the Extraliga club who don't make Slovan's KHL roster. At present, Andrej Kudrna, Adam Trenčan and Peter Trška have been sent down to Skalica.

New beginnings for Piešťany in the Extraliga
Photo: Laco Duračka/shk37piestany.sk

However, there are more teams than Slovan embarking on new adventures next season. After initially toying with the prospect of playing in the EBEL, former 1.liga side ŠHK 37 Piešťany have moved up to the Extraliga, replacing the Bratislava side's spot in the Slovakian top tier. Piešťany, who won the 1.liga in 2009 and 2010 will face a tough task in next years Extraliga, but they have picked up a couple of good players with Extraliga experience. Another team moving onto pastures new are HK Nove Zamky, who have entered the MOL Liga, which features Hungarian and Romanian clubs. Interesting, one of the main reasons that Marián Lukáčik claims moved Nove Zamky to the MOL Liga was due to the new junior rules in the Extraliga, which forbids overagers from playing in the junior leagues. He hopes that by having Nove Zamky in the MOL Liga, it will allow these 21 and 22 year olds will develop better than being dropped in at the deep end in the Slovakian professional leagues, while also the cost of playing in the league is much lower (link). Another looking to enter the MOL Liga were Slovak talent factory HK 38 Dubnica. The club from Pavol Demitra's home town have consistently struggled with securing top level senior hockey in the town, whilst losing many of their best players to the nearby Dukla Trenčín side. However, the SZLH refused to grant permission for Dubnica to join the MOL Liga, while allowing Nove Zamky to enter the international competition. The reasons why Dubnica were not allowed to join the league are rumoured to be due to being unable to secure the merger between the 'new' HK 38 side and the old MHK Dubnica. The outfit look set to take part in the 2.liga next season.

So, another summer of turmoil in Slovakian hockey, which sadly seems to be nothing new. Who knows what the next year will have in store, and although I always try to put a positive spin on things, I am struggling to find anything 'good' about the situation that Slovak hockey finds itself in at this current stage. Maybe things will change, but sadly it seems that the success of the national team at the World Championships may be a failed success if nothing is done by the government or the SZLH.

Staying at home or making the jump.

It's a question that has certainly been getting more heated over the past couple of years, especially in countries such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic, whose junior programs are certainly nowhere near as successful as they were a decade or two earlier. Numerous young players are making their way over in droves, and last season saw a total of 33 Czechs playing in the combined three leagues which make up the Canadian Hockey League, as well as a further 15 Slovaks. Not only does this mean a large amount of youngsters are moving away from home at an early age, playing in a foreign country, but it also deprives the junior leagues of often their best talent, which means that players who have missed their chance of getting to the CHL are stuck in lower quality junior leagues, or are forced to make the jump to professional hockey at an earlier stage than perhaps they would otherwise.

There are clearly both pros and cons to each side, but an interesting interview by the great SlovakProspects site (link) with Matúš Matis, a 1993 born prospect who made the move to North America in 2009. He was then drafted by the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in the QMJHL 18th overall in 2010. Matis would then go on to play 33 games with the Saguenéens 2010-11, scoring only three goals. He was then sent down to the GMHL and the Bradford Rattlers, where he had played in 2009-10, scoring 14 times in 12 games. The Saguenéens once again left Matis out of their plans last season, and the Košice born forward played in the second best American junior league, the NAHL.

Julius Sinkovic (left). A tale of unfulfilled potential?
Photo: merkur-online.de

Matis' situation isn't anything new, but it once again highlights how it can be the off ice pressures at such a young age which can derail careers. In the aforementioned SlovakProspects article, he talks of the complete lack of communication with the Francophone head coach of the Saguenéens. Matis could not speak French. There are also the differences in the training regiments, as the extra focus on individual training seems to go against what is preached at the Slovakian junior schools. Couple these off ice issues, with the huge stress of trying to impress NHL scouts in order to get drafted can often push a player to breaking point, and a number of players who spent their junior years in the CHL have often failed to shine when making the jump to professional hockey. Julius Sinkovic seemed to have all the tools to have a great career, and he made the jump to the QMJHL in 2006, scoring 50 points in his debut season with Val-d'Or, whilst having a great World Junior Championships with Slovakia. Fast forward six years, the Slovan Bratislava junior is now playing in the German fourth tier. Martin Bartos is another who looked like a star in the making in the QMJHL, scoring 81 points in 2006-2007 with Acadie-Bathurst Titan, to only then fail to make the grade with Vitkovice. He spent last year in the Austrian Nationalliga after bouncing around the 1.liga and 2.liga for a while.

There are always going to be different circumstances for different people though. For some players, the move to the CHL appears to have been one that has paid off. Marek Hrivík, who was an exceptional junior in the Žilina program made the move across the Atlantic, and has now secured himself an NHL contract after finishing his junior career and scoring a point per game in the AHL playoffs. Richard Paník and Jaroslav Janus were both part of the 2012 Calder Cup winning Norfolk Admirals team after finishing their junior careers and being drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning. However, it is too early to say whether these players will go on to meet the potential which they clearly have. Two players who seem to have benefited greatly from their experience in the more physical WHL have been the pair of Košice born defencemen, Martin Marinčin  and Martin Gernát, the cornerstone of recent Slovakian national junior teams who are both in the Edmonton Oilers system. Another WHL star, Andrej Kudrna, who scored 82 points in 2010-11 has gone on to secure himself a KHL contract with HC Slovan Bratislava at the tender age of 21. 

There is no doubt that there are potential advantages to going abroad to the CHL, not least the increasing exposure and in recent years, the better likelihood of getting drafted. However, it seems that the players that go on to pursue great things in the CHL are simply better than the majority of players that go over and try to chance it in the CHL. Players such as Hrivík, Kudrna, and Memorial Cup winner Tomáš Jurčo had extremely impressive junior numbers, and seem to have all the tools to make it at the next level. However, it seems for many players that aren't at that elite level, the move to the CHL can be one which has disastrous consequences. No doubt the exposure to different coaching styles, smaller ice, and increasing competition against their North American counterparts can be an exciting prospect for many, but for quite a few players, the move to the CHL fails at setting them up to make the jump to professional hockey. That is why there is many an argument tohave a player stay in their domestic leagues and slowly be blooded in the elite professional league.

Sweden came calling for Matej Paulovič,
but was it the right move?
Photo: Andrej Čičman

A player that seems to have benefited from this is Marko Daňo, who has progressively worked his way up through the Dukla Trenčín system, being given a chance in higher age groups as he grew as a player has seen him make his professional debut at the age of 16, sign a KHL contract at the age of 17, and be Slovakia's top scorer at the World Under 18 Division 1 Championships. There is obviously a long road ahead of him, but over the next two years it will be interesting to compare his progression with the likes of Martin Réway and Tomáš Török, with both of them looking set to make the jump across to the CHL. Another currently playing abroad is big bodied forward Matej Paulovič, who is currently playing in Sweden. However, Paulovič really failed to shine when playing for the Slovakian side at the Under 18 World's, and next season will really be make or break for him.

Do I have a conclusion for what I think is best? Of course not. Each player and each person reacts to different situations in different ways. I believe that for the best young players, it doesn't matter the route that they take as I think they will get to the next level one way or another. However, I can't help thinking that the experience of playing in the Extraliga at the age of 17 or 18 goes a long way to helping a player bridge the gap between junior hockey and professional hockey. Even though he played a season in the WHL, Marian Hossa had already played a season of Extraliga hockey before that, while Marian Gaborik made the jump straight from the Extraliga to the NHL. Many people want the big chance to come quickly. To come on a plate. However, maybe the youngsters of today should be making their decisions more carefully, and take things a bit slower.

Perhaps the juniors of today should take note. More haste, less speed.