This past week Debrecen had a road trip in Transylvania and picked up two road wins in two places to play. After only letting in one goal against Gyergyói HK and having a shutout against the most potent offense in the league in Csíkszereda, DEAC goalie Zoltán Hetényi is this week’s Player of the Week.
Zoltán Hetényi has been having a great season between the pipes for Debrecen, he has a goals against average of 2.38 and a 94.2 save %, he has been the key to surprise performance that DEAC has produced this season. Hetényi was born in Budapest but mostly grew up in the Dunaújváros area, where he started playing hockey and came up through the local youth system. He would end up playing two season with Ferencváros but would end up turning pro in Fehérvár. In 2011 Hetényi moved north to Finland and signed with Jokerit, he would end up playing both in the Liiga and was also loaned out to Kiekko-Vantaa in the Mestis. In Jokerit he shared a locker room with current and former NHL stars such as Ossi Vaananen, Jarkko Ruutu and Tuevo Teravainen After one season in Finland he was invited to camp with the Nashville Predators but was sent down to the minors and spent the season in the ECHL. After one season in North America he was back in Finland where he was under contract with Tappara but also played for Leki in the Mestis, Hetényi would end up coming back to Hungary during the 2013-14 season as he played out the rest of the year in Fehérvár. Zoltán would spend another three seasons in Fehérvár but last season he decided to give North America one more try and spent the season in Knoxville of the SPHL but was also called up to the ECHL. This past offseason he came back to Hungary and signed with DEAC where he is teammates with his younger brother Péter.
With the national team Zoltán played for both the Hungarian U18 and U20 national teams and made his debut with the senior team during the 2006-07 season and played in his first World Championships in Sapporo. In total he has been a part of six World Championship teams, two of them being in the A-Pool.
You and Debrecen have been playing reagt all season but this past week you picked up two wins on the road, any secret to this week’s success?
That is a good questions, I am very happy that I played well and the team played great as well. It was important for us to pick up two wins on the road because in the previous week we did not pick up any points in the two games. We needed these wins and we hope to surprise teams.
The team is playing well and might have surprised people at how well things have been going, what is the environment like in the locker room?
We would like to be a surprise team, no one was really expecting big things from us, but we are always telling each other in the locker room to be humble and to work hard, eventually we will be able to bare the fruits of this. So far the environment within the team is great. Every day we are going to the rink to get some work done, sometimes twice I day. We are both mentally and physically fit.
Last season the idea of hanging up the skate was a topic for you, why did you decided keep playing and why DEAC?
I had some chances to play abroad and maybe did not make all the best choices so the I did not really want to play hockey anymore, some of my friends told me that this might be soon since I am still only 30 and I could keep on playing for a couple more seasons. After that Debrecen contacted me and I told them that I would be interested if I could get into the university as well. I was accepted to the school so no I am trying to balance both. It is also nice to be teammates again with my brother Peter, which has not happened since we played together in Fehérvár and we made the playoffs. We would like to duplicate this again this season as well.
Last year you played in the SPHL and you have also played in the ECHL during your career as well, how can the ERSTE Liga be compared to these two leagues?
A lot of people do not think the SPHL is a strong league but there are a number of skilled players who are playing in the league who have AHL and ECHL experience. It is a very fast paced league with a lot of skilled players, I was pleasantly surprised by it. The ECHL is very professional league with players with NHL contracts and the surroundings are great as well. These leagues have better arenas, more fans and the over pace and physicality of the leagues are completely different. I am trying to take what I learned over there and apply it to here. I played an entire season in the SPHL and three games in the ECHL which helped me to improves my insurance. I think I accomplished goal of going out there with my own money and seeing what I can do. The two head coaches did not really see eye to eye, I was only supposed to be sent back down to the SPHL for a weekend but in the meantime Greenville decided to get another goalie and I was never called back up.
Going to school is a very important part of your life as you mention it alot, what are you in school for right now?
I am in school to for wildlife engineering here at the Debrecen university, it is a very exciting topic and it has to do with nature which is interesting for me. We cover topics as how to control the population of animals. My brother Peter and me grow up in the countryside, in nature so this is very close to me. It is not a popular major but which is great because the professors can deal with us more one on one. I pretty much spend my time either at the rink or in the classroom.
