Fehérvár brought back two old faces to join the four imports that they have already signed. Dániel Kóger has come back after spending the past four seasons in the U.S. and István Bartalis spent the past eight seasons with Troja-Ljungby in Sweden.
Kóger was born and raised in Székesfehérvar and except for two seasons spent in Salzburg he played his youth hockey in his home town. His first year in America was with the Laredo Bucks of the CHL before splitting the following seasons between six teams in two leagues, the ECHL and the AHL. As great as his first two seasons went his third and fourth were not as smooth as he played for five teams in two seasons in the ECHL.
Unlike Kóger, Bartalis only spent one year playing youth hockey for Fehérvár. Bartalis was born in Transylvania but started his hockey career in Győr, he spent two seasons with the Budapest Stars and one with Fehérvár before going to Sweden. In Sweden he finished up his amateur career and played the past five seasons in the Allsvenskan where Troja-Ljungby was relegated from.
In Bartalis and Koger Fehérvár picked up two scores that the club needed last year. Joining the two Hungarian national team players are a Swede, a Canadian and two Americans. Johan Ejdepalm looks to be lock down defenceman who has played in some of the top levels in Europe. The native Swede started his pro career in the Allsvenskan before playing for München in the German second division. Ejdepalm would spend three seasons in the Elitserien which he followed up with four seasons in the DEL. Last seasons he had a goal and six assists for the Hamburg Freezers.
Matt Register is a native of Calgary and he played his junior hockey in the AJHL where he developed into a scoring threat from the blue line. The 24 year old has spent the last three seasons with four teams in the CHL and the ECHL It would be good for Fehérvár if he could take some of the pressure off of other defencemen.
The two Americans are both 28 but they play different styles, Jeff LoVecchio is more of a grinder whereas Brandon Marino is a scorer. LoVecchio played his junior hockey in the USHL and spent three seasons playing college hockey at Western Michigan before turning professional. Since college he spent three seasons in the AHL and ECHL, one each in Italy and Norway.
Marino split his junior hockey between the BCHL in Canada and the NAHL in the United States. He played four years of college hockey and Bemidji State, over the next five seasons he got to experience every league of minor hockey as he played in the now defunct IHL, the ECHL, CHL and AHL. Last seasons he scored 88 points in 72 games for the Ft. Wayne Komets of the ECHL.
With these signs it clearly looks that Fehérvár was trying to fill all the needs that they had for the upcoming seasons.
Words: Szabolcs Závodszky
Photo: László Mudra