Worldwide Hockey News Roundup 7/6/24
It’s been a bit since I reported on what’s going on in the hockey world outside North America and a lot has happened. Here’s just some of what’s happened in some of the leagues. I did plan to include more news originally, but after my third seizure in less than a week, I decided to keep the article as it was and go on an immediate week-long break to recover, starting with this article being published. Speaking of breaks, I’ll be taking my annual two-week break from writing from August 25-September 8. I don’t expect any news to be breaking that late in August so there’s no real point to not take a break during that time. Then, when I come back, European hockey will be underway, so I’ll have some news to actually report on. It’s the time that makes the most sense to do so.
Before we get to the rest of this article, the queer population living in Kakuma refugee Camp in Kenya need help. There are over 1,000 queer asylum seekers and refugees there, fleeing from discrimination. Unfortunately, their basic needs are not met and they cannot seek employment as it is illegal for queers there to have jobs. There is a fundraiser on Go Get Funding and if you are able, please financially support them, and whether you can give money or not, please share the fundraiser and get out the word. You can follow the organizers of this fundraiser on Twitter.
Alps Hockey League
The first major story of the offseason to break was Tray Tuomie, head coach of the championship (Italian and Alps Hockey League) winning Ritten Buam SkyAlps, announced his departure from the club. He is joining EC iDM Wärmepumpen VSV of the win2day ICE Hockey League (Austria’s top league). Jamie Russell has since been named his replacement. Last season Russell was the head coach of HKM Zvolen of the Tipos Extraliga (Slovakia’s top league).
Since we started with Ritten, I’ll continue with the off-season news for this club. Next up would be goaltender Colin Furlong (the league’s best goaltender last season) signing an extension with the club for two more seasons. After that, Eric Hjorth, who scored the championship-clinching goal, signed an extension with the club. For how many years I’m not sure, but due to the lack of clarification, I’m assuming one, but I could be wrong. The same is true with the other player they extended, Alan Lobis. Outside of extensions, they went out and signed Diego Cuglietta and Sebastiano Soracreppa.
EC Bregenzerwald announced their new head coach: Märt Eerme. For the last four seasons, he has been the head coach of Tallinn HC Panter in the Eesti Hokiliiga (Estonia’s top league) and Latvian Hockey Higher League (Latvia’s top league). They weren’t the last club to announce a new head coach. The Hockey Unterland Cavaliers announced that Staffan Lundh will be taking over as head coach. For the last two years, he has been the coach of Skövde IK in Hockeyettan (Sweden’s third tier).
Meanwhile, the rare Japanese import, Riku Ishida, will be joining HC Meran/o Pircher. Last season he was named Rookie of the Year with the Tohoku Free Blades in the Asian League Ice Hockey. He put 23 points in 32 games, 4 of them being goals, as a defender.
The newest team in the league, KHL Sisak, has made some moves as well. They signed Tyrone Bronte and Vito Idzan while signing extensions with Tomislav Ličina and Dominic Canic.
Champions Hockey League
The CHL has been quite busy this off-season. In addition to cementing the lineups and releasing the schedule, which I will get to, it announced a new governance structure and sustainability strategy.
We'll start with the new governance structure. There will now only be five members on the board, previously there were nine. Board members will be elected for three-year terms. Currently, though, a sort of transitional board has been put in place. Rolling elections were held with varying terms. The four transitional board members that were elected by shareholders are:
Jörgen Lindgren (1-year term, CHL President)
Henrik Bach Nielsen (1-year term, IIHF Vice President Europe & Africa and President of the Danish Ice Hockey Association)
Patrick Lengwiler (3-year term, CEO of EV Zug)
Miha Butara (3-year term, Deputy Director General of Slovenian Railways Group, Supervisory Board Member (JHL, Nomago, SŽ ŽIP), President of Hockey Club Olimpija Ljubljana and Vice President of the Slovenian Ice Hockey Federation
In addition, shareholders elected these members to the board committees:
Nomination Committee:
Christian Feichtinger
Petr Syrovatko Jr.
Timo Everi
Johan Hemlin
John Gobbi
Matti Nurminen
Growth Committee (led by Board member Miha Butara):
Ivan Čonka
Kristian Gotsch
Jon Andrea Schocher
Sport Committee (led by Board Member Patrick Lengwiler):
Jussi Markkanen
Christian Winkler
Viktor Szélig
Christian Lechtaler
Kim Pedersen
Compliance & Regulatory Committee (led by by Board Member Henrik Bach Nielsen):
Gernot Tripcke
Lennart Ernstson
Andreas Münch
The previous members of the Board who no longer remain on it but will transition to new roles are Christian Feichtinger, Petr Syrovatko Jr., and Timo Everi, who are all joining the Nomination Committee. Gernot Tripcke is joining the Compliance & Regulatory Committee. Rupert Zamorsky and Kaarel Lehiste will no longer have any roles in the CHL.
In much quicker news: The CHL released their sustainability strategy. It is much too long to go over here, so I will leave the link to the website for the strategy here if you want to find out what’s in it. Then, the lineups and schedule were released. The lineup for the CHL this season from the National League includes Genève-Servette, Fribourg-Gottéron, ZSC Lions Zurich, and Lausanne HC. From the win2day ICE Hockey League there are: Red Bull Salzburg, KAC Klagenfurt, and Fehérvár AV19. The teams representing the Czech Extraliga are Oceláři Třinec, Dynamo Pardubice, and Sparta Prague. The three teams representing the DEL are Eisbären Berlin, Pinguins Bremerhaven, and Straubing Tigers. From the Liiga there are Straubing Tigers, Ilves Tampere, and Lahti Pelicans. The final league to have three teams representing it is the SHL and they have Skellefteå AIK, Färjestad Karlstad, and Växjö Lakers. The leagues that only have one team representing them are Metal Ligaen (SønderjyskE Vojens), Ligue Magnus (Rouen Dragons), EliteHockey Ligaen (Storhamar Hockey), Polska Hokej Liga (Unia Oświęcim), and finally, the EIHL (Sheffield Steelers). If you want to check the schedule, click here. The season begins on September 5.
EIHL
The biggest news easily is that Mike Hicks, who has served as Head of Operations of the EIHL for the last seven years, is stepping down. Former referee Liam Sewell will be replacing him. He released a statement that reads: “Coming off the ice entirely was not an easy decision to make, but this is an opportunity that I could not turn down. I’m very excited to be taking up this role which gives me the chance to work with both our current and up-and-coming officials for the betterment of officiating in the EIHL, alongside day-to-day administration of the league. I would also like to thanks Mike Hicks for his support over my career, both on the ice and transitioning into this new role.”
If you would like to keep track of transfers in the league this offseason, the EIHL has a tracker you can use to see what happened. You can find it here.
IIHF
The groups and schedule for the Continental Cup have been announced. Round one will take place September 20-22 (Groups A & B), round two between October 18-20 (Groups C & D), round three from November 15-17 (Groups E & F), and then the playoffs between January 16-19. Here are the groups (asterisk denotes the group host):
Group A:
SKHL Crvena Zvezda (Serbian Hockey League)
KHL Sisak (Croatian Ice Hockey League & Alps Hockey League)
Liege Bulldogs (BeNe League)
SC Irbis Skatem (Bulgarian Hockey League)*
Group B:
Energija (Latvian Hockey Higher League)
Narva PSK (Coolbet Hokiliiga)*
Skautafelag Reykjavikur (Icelandic Men’s Hockey League)
CH Jaca (Liga Nacional de Hockey Hielo)
Group C:
Rittner Buam (Alps Hockey League)*
Acroni Jesenice (Slovenian Ice Hockey League & Alps Hockey League)
Sokil Kyiv (Ukranian Hockey League)
Qualifier Group A
Group D:
HK Mogo (Latvian Hockey Higher League)
Ferencvarosi TC (Országos Bajnokság I & Erste Liga)
CSM Corona Brasov (Romanian Hockey League & Erste Liga)*
Qualifier Group B
Group E:
HC Arlan (Kazakhstan Hockey Championship)
Cardiff Devils (Elite Ice Hockey League)
Vlci Zilina (Slovak Extraliga)*
Qualifier Group C
Group F:
Aalborg Pirates (Metal Ligaen)*
GKS Katowice (Polska Hokej Liga)
Bruleurs de Loups (Ligue Magnus)
Qualifier Group D
Liiga
Liiga is always one of the harder leagues for me to cover. Not because I don’t have a feel for what’s going on, but because of that. There’s always so much happening that I struggle to keep the reporting to a minimum to keep articles short, and that’s just as true right now during the off-season. I’ll start with the schedule which has been announced. The regular season will begin on September 10 with seven matches and ends on March 15 with eight matches. If you want to see the full schedule, you can find it here. But as I talk about schedule, I must also inform you of schedule reforms for this season. There are now 16 clubs in the league. Previously, there were only 15. Kiekko-Espoo is the newest club, so this brings changes. The first is that the playoffs are expanding to 12 teams, with the fifth-twelfth-ranked teams playing in the first round, and the first-fourth-ranked teams getting to rest. The first round will be a best-of-five series (in the past it was best-of-three). The later rounds will remain best-of-seven. Playoffs are not the only thing changing, though. Also being added is a playout and regelation series. The fifteenth and sixteenth-ranked teams will play each other in a best-of-seven series. The loser will play the champion of Mestis (the second-tier league in Finland) in a best-of-seven series. If the Liiga team loses, they will be relegated to Mestis. The Mestis team, assuming they have their license application approved, will be promoted. If the Mestis team fails to have their application approved or fails to submit one, the Liiga team will remain in Liiga, and the Mestis team will remain in Mestis.
In other news, the league and the Players Association agreed to extend their general agreement by one year. The previous three-year agreement expired in May, and the new one will last until May 7, 2025.
In more fun news: awards have been given out. Here is the list of winners:
Unto Wiitala award (Best referee): Joonas Kova
Pentti Isotalo award (Best linesman): Lauri Nikulainen
Kalevi Numminen award (Best coach): Rikard Grönborg (Tappara)
Urpo Ylönen award (Best goalkeeper): Christian Heljanko (Tappara)
Pekka Rautakallio award (Best defender): Charle-Edouard D'Astous (KooKoo)
Raimo Kilpiö Award (Gentleman's Player): Veli-Matti Vittasmäki (Tappara)
Jarmo Wasama Memorial Award (Best Newcomer): Viljami Marjala (TPS)
Finally, the last piece of news from Liiga I’ll be going over is another celebratory one: this upcoming season will be Liiga’s 50th. That’s right. In honor of it, Liiga will be changing its logo, just for this season.
Allow me to translate the image you see so you can understand the individual elements in the logo. The base of the logo, the big blue circle with S and M separated by a hockey stick is the original logo of Liiga. The gold surrounding the original logo is inspired by the gold surrounding the logo used between 1997-2005. Then, there is the wreath, in which there are 50 leaves to signify 50 years of the league. The little circles you see in the wreath are pucks, and there are 22 of them as a tribute to the 22 organizations that have played in the league and their predecessors. Finally, at the bottom, you see the league’s founding and anniversary year.
Metal Ligaen
10 year veteran Luis Blak Olsen has called it quits. He played his first four seasons with Gentofte and the last six with Herlev. In that time he’s won both a bronze and silver medal. Congrats on a successful career.
SønderjyskE was able to keep experienced defender Daniel Kønig for at least one more season. For those who don’t know, Kønig has won four gold medals with the club and is one of their most important players. It’s huge for the club to have him back. That wasn’t the only big move they made, though. They also were able to get All-Star center, Nikolaj Krag, to sign a two-year extension. In addition, they brought back All-Star defender Gustav Nielsen for another season.
Jens Nielsen has stepped down as head coach of the Aalborg Pirates. The club said this in a press release, “Jens has received an offer to become an assistant coach in Sweden for an SHL club, and just like when our players get an offer from the big leagues and clubs once in a while, of course, we don't want to stand in the way.” Nielsen had only taken over the club this January after the firing of Garth Murray and led the club to a bronze medal win. Meanwhile, Santeri Heiskanen, who was an assistant coach for the club, will take over as the head coach.
There weren’t many bright spots for Frederikshavn last season, but Todd Winder was one of them, putting up 40 points in 48 games. He has signed a one-year extension for the club.
All-Star defender, Jeff King, will return to Esbjerg for another season. He had 47 points in 48 games (12G, 35A).
The schedule for the league has been released. The season will begin on September 3 and end on March 9. You can see the full season schedule here.
Speaking of schedules, Herning Blue Fox scheduled two pre-season matches against the Japanese national team. They will face off against each other, in Denmark, on August 23 and 25. This is happening thanks to Olympic qualifiers that are taking place in Denmark starting on the 29th of August.
Finally, we’ll end with some news from the business end. Rungsted was a bit busy. First, they announced a capital increase of four million. After that, they announced a new director: Robert Mørkegaard Gertsen. Finally, Esbjerg Energy was rewarded with extra money. I was not able to find the amount. It was apparently a lot, though.
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