In the past week the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation media partner, Nemzeti Sport has been catching up with a number of players from the national team just as they are starting training camp with their respective teams. This time they managed to catch up with János Hári.
János Hári moved up and down at the same time, the 23 year old forward left his club MODO in the Swedish top division to sign with Leksand who had just been relegated to the second division. Hári had been with MODO since 2011 except for the the 2013-14 season which he spent with HIFK in the Finnish top flight.
“We have two on ice practices and two off ice trainings sessions each day, I don't know how I will survive this.” said Hári with a smile. “Our first exhibition game is in two weeks, but on that that week we will have three games and eleven practices”
Leksand is a real first division club, according to research by the IIHF, with their average attendance of 6,132 that puts them at 30th in the world, the year before they were 26th. Compared to this MODO was “only” 44th with their 5,383 average. From this point of view it is a step up but the slight problem is that Leksand is in the second divisions, but if everything goes according to plan they will be back in the Elitserien next season.
“Leksand is a top division club who also happens to be the most popular club in Sweden” said Hári “the arena is just as good as the one MODO plays in the coaches are just as good, the head coach also works with the Norwegian federation.”
The mention coach is none other than Sjur Robert Nilsen who the past two season was the assistant coach for Leksand before being promoted to head coach, he was also the head coach of the Norwegian U20 national team and an assistant for the senior team at the 2015 world championships. If he stays with Norway then Hári and his coach will cross paths in November when Hungary travels to Norway for the 4 Nations tournament in Stavanger to face the home nation as well as France and Denmark. Not only the coach but the team manager Tore Jobs is also expecting big things from Hári, as they expect him to be a top line forward for them.
“The manager placed some pressure on me when he said in an interview that I will be the leading scorer.” Hári never really lacks confidence but this will still be a challenge as last year the leading scorer had 57 points in 52 games, in the first division the leading scorer had 60 in 55 which was none other than former Fehérvár and current Carolina Hurricanes forward Derek Ryan. János Hári had 21 points in 54 games.