It is a new season and as it has become an annual move DVTK is starting off the season with a new coach, this year former NHL head coach Glen Hanlon will be in charge of the team. Hanlon will be familiar with Slovak hockey as he was the Slovak national team head coach for two seasons. The assistant coach for DVTK will be Hunor Strenk despite his young age, this will be his third pro club that he will be an assistant coach with.
With the Slovak Extraliga being a higher level than the ERSTE Liga, DVTK strengthened the goalie position as they brought back Dávid Duschek from Dunaújváros after two seasons. Attila Adorján is one of the best young goalies in Hungary.
The defensive unit is very deep with two imports and four national team defenders. Nick Crawford was an offensive blueliner during his four seasons in the AHL as well as last season in Denmark. Jamie Milam will be familiar with the Extraliga as he played for Nyitra the previous three seasons. Tomas Slovak is the most experienced defender on the team as he has played in some of the top leagues in the world. DVTK also picked up two national team defencemen in Bence Szirányi and Dávid Kiss to go with Mátyás Vojtko and Balázs Láda. Jed Rusk should fit into the North American style of play that will be part of the system that Hanlon will be using.
DVTK in recent years have always had depth among their forwards and were able to roll four solid lines, this will not be any different this year. There are three import players among the forwards. The club decided to bring back Rasmus Kulmala, a small quick forward who has sneaky shot and good hands. Ryan Harrison is a big bodied power forward, who will do the dirty work in the corners and in front of the net. Alexis Loiseau should be one of the top scorers on the team as he has been around a point per game player where every where he has played in his career. A late offseason addition to the team is two time Olympian, Ziga Pance who has been a productive forward anywhere he has played in his career. DVTK also has a strong core of Hungarian players as well, Bálint Magosi and János Vas have been the staples on the Hungarian national team for the past decade, they will be expected to be leaders both on and off the ice. Nikandrosz Galanisz, Roland Hajós, Balázs Somogyi and Péter Vincze have been members of the Hungarian national team in recent years. All four of them are known for their scoring, however they all play of different style of game. Márk Miskolczi and László Ritó are two forwards that can be used just about anywhere in the four lines.
Glen Hanlon, head coach: The first thing that we told the players is that we want to raise the level of competition both in our games and at practice. This was not only me but our players said this. We know that for the 56 games it will take our best efforts to be competitive in this league. We have moved up a level and the level of play is higher. We will need to meet the challenge for 56 games. Before I got here I had talked to our players and they said our teams strength is that how close our core group of players are. They are not only teammates but personal friends, their families are friends. This core group has been together for year, they have had fun and have had success. I want to continue to build on this and to bring more players into the core group to be leaders. Our other strength is that we and also MAC, we are eager to see where we are in international hockey and going into this league. This is all new and there is some extra emotion. Our extra emotion has helped us win some exhibition games such as against Kassa and against Vitkovice, these were very emotional wins for us. When we raise it to that level we can compete against anyone.
Players Added: Dávid Duschek (Dunaújváros), Nick Crawford, Alexis Loiseau (Esbjerg, DEN), Dániel Kiss (UTE), Jamie Milam (Nyitra, Slovak Extraliga), Tomas Slovak (Chomutov, Czech Extraliga), Bence Szirányi Péter Vincze (Fehérvár), Ryan Harrison (Colorado, ECHL), Ziga Pance (Dornbirn, EBEL), Balázs Somogyi (MAC)
Players who left: Attila Pavuk, Anssi Rantanen, Adrián Tóth, Gergő Tóth (Ferencváros), Ákos Berta (DEAC), Tibor Albert, Milán Bernáth, Bence Kiss, Roland Köllő, Ottó Szopos (HK Budapest, on loan), Milán Karda (retired), Colin Joe, Jarkko Leppanen, Ryan Ruikka, Peter Sakaris (unknown)
