Continuing with the preseason MOL League preview series icehockey.hu is up to the teams that made it to the final four, next up Brasov.
Right from the start it has to be said Brasov is not the same team as they were last season. The management announced early in the offseason that they will not be signing any import players because they do not have the financial resources and that they also want to develop some homegrown talent. The club also said that they will have enough players to play the 80 plus games that they will have in the MOL League, Romanian League and the Romanian Cup. The league has allowed Brasov and Csíkszereda to play the season with eight imports, however it looks as if the club is sticking with their no import plan. After having Swedish and Finnish coaches the past few season Brasov has turned to Ottó Keresztes, who is from right up the road in Csíkszereda. Keresztes had been a youth coach at the prestigious Okanagan Hockey Academy in Austria.
ROSTER
With long time starter Patrik Polc not being brought back Keresztes has three options to pick from. The veteran Rajmund Fülöp who has been a career backup, only playing a handful of games each season, Szilárd Béres who is 23 and has only played in a couple of Romanian league games, and the 21 year old Zoltán Tőke who played the most MOL League games last season with 18 as the backup goalie in Debrecen.
The situation on the blue line are not that much better, Yevgeni Pysarenko, who retired at the end of last season was coaxed out of retirement and will be a player-coach this season. Attila Imecs, Imre János and Csaba Nagy can bring the level that is needed for the MOL League but that is only two set of defencemen, and if Brasov plays 80 games this season these four players will be exhausted if there is no depth behind them.
The forwards have a mix of talent and experience and if they had a line of imports the team would have a pretty combination of three lines plus a line of your players as well. However with no imports and 80 games, just like the defensemen and the goalies the forwards could get worn down pretty good by the three quarters mark of the season. Hands down the best player and the go to guy when it comes to scoring is Árpád Mihály, who is an over a point per game scorer he will need to have a big season if the team wants a respectable showing. Another veteran that the team will be counting on is Levente Zsók who missed a large part of the season with an injury. The veteran forwards are will be rounded out by names such as Zsolt Molnár, Tivadar Petres, Csanád Virág and Csanád Fodor. A young forward to watch out for who had a bit of an off season last year is the 21 year old Dániel Tranca. The forward unit hopefully will be able to keep Brasov in most of the games.
COACHES' CORNEROtto Keresztes: We will have a very hard season since we will be playing the entire schedule without a single import player. Aside from the actual games, the amount of traveling that the team will go through will also tier the players out as well. Up front we should be relatively fine but on defense we will have problems, we had to move some forwards to defense. A big part of our game will be the team working together and everyone being disciplined on the ice. Brasov will give younger players every opportunity to prove themselves this season. We will fight hard for every point during the season.
Expert Opinion*
If Brasov truly is sticking with the plan of not signing any import players then they have no chance of making the playoffs, but if in fact they do bring in eight quality import players they do have a chance at the playoffs, but it all comes down to the type of players they bring in.
*Recently retired former MOL League player
Additions: Balázs, Tőke (Debrecen), Balla (Vasas, EBYSL), Sprencz, Tranca (Progym, Romania), G.Bíró, M.Bíró, O.Bíró (HSC Csíkszereda)
Departed: Polc (Detva, 1HL), Filip (Piestany, Extraliga), Han (Dunaújváros), Hietamaki (Ferencváros), Oprea (Galati, Romania), Antal, Péter (HSC Csíkszereda), Klouda (Michalovce, 1HL), Saluga (Debrecen), Obsut (?)