As the season regular season starts to come to a close and the playoff picture starts to become more clearer the teams of the MOL League start to strengthen their rosters. Some hope to solidify a playoff spot, others are jockeying for the top spot on the table. In the past month there have been a number of new signings, with most of the teams picking up new players. The news of Csíkszereda bringing in ex NHL forward Mike Danton was already covered, but since then a handful of elite players have been brought in with a couple making their MOL League debut in the next couple of days.
After bringing in Danton, Csíkszereda continued to add to the squad as they brought in another forward, the 12th overall pick from the 1999 draft, Denis Shvidki. Shvidki was picked by the Florida Panthers out of the OHL where he had been teammates with Danton on the Barrie Colts. Shvidki spent four seasons with the Panthers where he played in 76 games, when the lockout came he went to play in Russia. After that he decided to stay and in total played five seasons in the top Russian league before he bounced around Europe, playing in Finland, Germany and back in Russia before coming to the MOL League.
In Budapest the two teams have been adding parts as well, Újpest has been signing North American players all season but their latest addition has been the most accomplished yet. UTE signed a forward by the name Cody Crichton from Ontario Canada. Crichton played a lower level junior hockey in Ontario and then later played NCAA D1 for Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, where he was teammates with former Miskolc defenseman Dave Cowan. Last season, his first after university, he played in the SPHL as well as for three teams in the ECHL.
Not to be left out Ferencváros also went out and signed a player with North American experience who will also fit in with the Scandinavian presence on the team since Viktor Gibbs Sjödin hails from Sweden. Sjödin was the seventh round NHL draft pick of the Nashville Predators in 2006, after being drafted he played juniors for two seasons in the WHL before going back to Sweden and playing in the Allsvenskan. He comes to Fradi from Division 1 in Sweden.
Down the river from Budapest, Dunaújváros also joined the arms race as they brought in a forward as well in Andy Contois who came over from the Fife Flyers in England. Aaron Murphy the play by play announcer for Premier Sports said “he is a good player, but never got off to a good start in Fife, he was playing better recently”.
Contois is an American player who played junior hockey in both of the two top junior leagues in the U.S., the USHL and the NAHL. He played four years of NCAA D1 hockey at Northern Michigan before he played for a number of teams in the ECHL and one game in the AHL, before making the move to Europe. In Johnstown he was teammates with current Fehévár forward Andy Sarauer and in Shreveport he teamed up with former Ferencváros forward Beau McLaughlin. Aside from playing in England Contois also laced his skates up in Sweden, Germany, Finland and Denmark.
To complete this trip around the MOL League signings one has to go to the last stop of Brasov. Brasov has to keep step with their Transylvanian rivals so they brought in a 23 year old center from Sweden by the name of Johan Ceder. Ceder looks to be the least experienced from the new players entering the league this month. After playing in the Swedish U18 league he spent parts of four seasons in lower leagues in Sweden, in Division 1 and Division 2. He left his home country for the neighboring Norway where he spent the last two seasons playing in their third division.
It will be interesting to see how the players themselves pan out on the ice and if their respective teams will accomplish what they hoped to do at the outset of the season.
Szabolcs Závodszky
@Zavodszky