After no sign of life coming out of Debrecen aside from their major signing of Balázs Ladányi, they released their season opening lineup as well as who will be the head coach.
Debreceni Hoki Klub will be the lone new addition to the league this season.
Originally it was announced that Vladimir Scheglov would stay as the head coach of the club after he had been in charge of the U20 side that competed in both the Hungarian and Slovak leagues. Taking over behind the bench for the 2014-15 campaign will be Yevgeni Mukhin who spent the last couple of years coaching in the MHL, the Russian junior league.
Joining Ladányi will be a number of other experienced MOL League players who have been known to find the back of the net. Debrecen was able to procure a solid line from Ferecváros with Ákos Berta, Norbert Dancsfalvi, and Artyom Vaszjunyin coming over along with Dávid Horváth. Debrecen has also brought in two Russian forwards with KHL experience in Danil Kaskov and Vitali Sychov, rounding out the forward unit is U20 players from Debrecen, and other newcomers from Miskolc and MAC.
On the blue line the team looks to have even less experience, three played on last years U20 Debrecen team with Lajos Üveges splitting time between Debrecen and Miskolc in the MOL League. Andrei Yemelyanov and Valeri Sadikov are two young Russian defenders who have potential in the MOL League. Anchoring the blue line will be a pair of veterans, the 38 year old former Hungarian international Lajos Tőkési and the 36 year old Russian Alexei Voronov. Tőkési has been playing at the senior level longer than some of his teammates have been alive with two separate six year stints in Dunaújváros sandwiching seven seasons in Székesfehérvár, he finished up last season in Ferencváros. Voronov had played a number of seasons earlier in his career in the top Russian league and played last season in the VHL, the secon tier in Russia.
The goaltending position looks to be the least experienced in the team as Oleg Dytalov is the senior member at the ripe old age of 21 and Zoltán-László Tőke is 20. Dyatlov has spent the last four seasons in the MHL and Tőke has mostly played in U20 and U18 leagues.
While the team is lacking MOL League experience in total as a squad they make up it with players who look to be the leaders in Ladányi and Tőkési, both have played for the national team for years and know what it takes to win. This Debrecen team could make a push for the playoffs and will not make things any easier for the others that will be fighting for the last two spots such as HSC Csíkszereda, Újpest and Ferencváros.
Words: Szabolcs Závodszky