Four young Hungarian skaters have made it one step closer to Russia’s KHL. The KHL will be having their annual player draft on May 26th in Donetsk, Ukraine.
The KHL has recently released a list ranking the top 100 non Russian European players eligible for this year’s draft, making the list are four Hungarians total, two playing in Hungary and the other two spending the past season in Sweden.
Csanád Erdély is a 185 cm tall 17 year old forward who spent this past season in Székesfehérvár playing in the Austrian U-20 as well as with the academy team in the Hungarian U-18 and U-20 teams.
Joining Erdély on the list is his teammate in Székesfehérvár, 17 year old Mark Szaller. Szaller like his teammate also played in the Austria U-20 and the Hungarian U-18 teams of Fehérvár.
The third player on the list is Transylvanian born right-winger Norbert Antal. Antal has spent the past season with the Swedish club IFK Ore, playing for both the U-18 and U-20 teams as well as making his debut with the adult team in the Swede 3rd division (Division 1), registering one assist in three games.
The baby of the bunch is Vilmos Galló a 16 year old right-winger who also spent this past season Sweden. This season was Galló’s third in Sweden, all with Flemingsbergs IK. He was a rather productive scorer, leading the U-18 team in points and being second on the U-20 squad.
This is not the first time we have seen Hungarians make the draft list, in 2009 goalkeeper Zoltán Hetényi made it along with forwards Dániel Kóger, Illés Galló and János Hári. In 2010 only Hári was on the list.
If any of the four teenagers get picked this would be the first time that a Hungarian would be associated with a KHL team. Benjámin Nemes, Ádám Vay, Ádám Fekti and Richárd Hardi played this past season with Patriot Budapest of the MHL. Árpád Mihály and István Sofron have been on try outs with KHL teams in the past.
Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky