The 2018-19 season will have a total of 11 teams competing for the ERSTE Liga title. With the field of teams being balanced this might be the tightest race the league has ever seen.
There are number of changes in the ERSTE Liga which will start this weekend on September 9th. MAC Újbuda and DVTK Jegesmedvék have left the league to compete in the Slovak Extraliga. Replacing them with four new teams as a total teams will be competing in the league.
Álmos Szőke, league president is expecting that the four new teams, DEAC, Schiller-Vasas, HK Budapest and Gyergyói HK will raise the level of the league. During the season kickoff press conference the league president mentioned a number improvements that are happening in the arenas all throughout the league.
Szőke also mentioned that during this year a larger amount of young players will get an opportunity play in the league than in the past.
Richárd Szabados league vice president and president of ERSTE Bank announced that ERSTE Bank has come up with three new league awards as well as a scholarship.
The ERSTE Liga will have the “Believe in yourself” scholarship which would go to the best player who is attending college and would have an opportunity to have an internship at ERSTE Bank. There will also be an award for the player that has developed the most during the season, There will be a Gentleman Award, which will be similar to the NHL’s Lady Bing award. The fans are not being left out since there will be a fan of the year award as well.
Richárd Szabados stated that their cooperation with the league last season was productive, they would also systematically improve the league in the next few seasons. Szabados continued on saying that ERSTE Bank has long term plans in working together with Hungarian hockey.
Representing Csíkszereda at the event was Imre Csató, he said that the goal for the team is to win the league however there are a number of strong teams in the league, thus it will not be an easy task. He also mentioned that the team would like to sign one more import.
Zsolt Azari Sr. from Dunaújváros believes there will be a number of surprises during the upcoming season. This season the team has moved more towards the Finnish style after having a Czech flavor in recent years. “We have a number of young players on our roster, because of this we will have an exciting season, we will also find out how are we with developing young talent.” said Azari.
UTE club president Róbert Dömötör explained that since the top two teams in the league had left now everyone is hoping that they have a legit chance at taking home the title. The purple and white club has four balanced lines, and would like to go one round father in the playoffs, which would be the finals.
Gábor Hudák was representing Ferencváros, he mentioned that making it to the semi finals is the goal of the team, after that anything can happen. It might be too early to talk about title aspirations since the team has a young coach and a new roster. Richárd Hardi was in attendance as well and stated that he is over his health issues and he ready for the new season.
New Fehérvár head coach Dávid Kiss explained that he only kept the players from last season that he saw potential in. The empty roster spots went to young guys that they brought up from the academy and imports who they believe are examples for the younger players. The goal of the team is to give more playing time for the younger player.
The Vienna Capitals like Fehérvár are concentrating on developing young players. Head coach Santeri Heiskanen said that he hopped the team will be better this season than last season. The team did go out and pickup more imports who are also quality players. Heiskanen is also expecting to be a surprise team this season.
DEAC team president András Fodor said that the local university finds hockey very important to them and that the students also are drawn to the sport. The club would also like to pull back the fans they lost during the one season that pro hockey was away in Debrecen. The team is a fusion of young players that have aged out of the youth system and former Debrecen players.
According to Schiller-Vasas general manager Levente Szuper the club has a long term plan that they are sticking to. The focus is on the young Hungarian players. The national team will play better if more young players are getting playing time in top leagues.
Attila Balázs, the president of Gyergyói HK said that they did not bring back too many players from last season’s roster. Because of this they had to go out and pick up top and import players to keep up with the top teams in the league. “We do not want to finish last, this is why we went out and picked up top imports. We want the local young players to be able to play with the imports.
Dusan Kapusta, head coach for HK Budapest said that the young players want more playing time and the team is willing to give it to them. The team also has experienced Hungarian players as well.
2018-19 ERSTE Liga field
ASC Corona Brasov 2010
DEAC
Dunaújvárosi Acélbikák
EV. Vienna Capitals
Fehérvári Titánok
Ferencvárosi TC
Hokiklub Budapest
Gyergyói HK
SC Csíkszereda
Schiller-Vasas
UTE
