Dunaújváros has built up a strong hockey history throughout the years, in a season where they do not win the league title or at least make it to the finals can be counted like a disappointing season.
The regular season went great for DAB.Docler where they won the regular season and had a great run in the IIHF Continental Cup, they gave Fehérvár a great run for their money in the Super Cup and ended up winning the Hungarian Cup at the end of the season but they were upset in the first round of the playoffs by Brasov, which was a surprise to a number of people.
A lot has happened in the offseason for the SteelBulls, after three successful seasons Swedish head coach Stefan Lundh had to move back home for personal reasons. Replacing him will be former NHL player, Canadian coach Don MacLean, who had been an assistant coach in the KHL for Medvescak Zagreb.
Interestingly enough is that DAB.Docler is starting the season with only three import players, which is a bit unusual compared to what fans are used to. However this might be a good move in that if they are slow out of the gates they still have three roster spots to use on to improve the squad.
DAB.Docler starts the season much like they finished it in net with Peter Sevela and Janis Kalnins. Sevela in the past season has acquired his Hungarian citizenship and represented his new home nation at the world championships. Last season Lundh said that he didn’t have a starting goalie and a backup but 1 and 1A, and the only reason he had to switch them around was because of the import quota. They most likely be splitting the games 50/50. With last years designated bench keeper Tamás Kiss retiring the team has brought in Márk Hajek to be the third goalie on the team. The goalie position is one of the strengths of this club.
On defense the team only has one player that has yet to play a MOL League game and that is Canadian Nathan Martine. Everyone else has at least one season of MOL League hockey under their belt with five defencemen have played in at least 110 games. Martine who was signed from the ECHL joins a group that has three national team plyaers. However the club hopes that the loss of three import blue liners will not hurt the team, Peter Huba signed with Nové Zámky, Victor Lindgren is in Norway and Henrich Jabornik was in camp with Csíkszereda.
DAB.Docler did score a tremendous amount of goals last season but as of right now they only have 12 forwards on their senior roster, which is good for now as long as they do not get a rash of injuries. The only forward that the team brought in was young Hungarian forward Richárd Hárdi from Nové Zámky who will be playing with his brother Márton. One loss that will be very hard to replace regardless of who they sign and that is Balázs Ladányi who left to join the new team in Debrecen.
“Like every team the goal is to win the championship but in the end I hope each player can walk away a better person and player after playing for me,” said head coach Don MacLean . “My coaching goal is that after people watch the team play they will say we are a hard working structured club. I do believe if a team can be on the same page they can play faster than they really are. The left hand needs to know what the right hand is doing.”
Photo: László Mudra