Martin Saluga is a veteran import in the MOL League as he is in his ninth season in the MOL League and is at the top of almost every all time statistical list in the league’s history. The Slovak forward comes from Spisska Nova Ves, he started his senior career in the Slovak Extraliga where he played for Poprad and Spisska Nova Ves. He first moved to the MOL League when he signed with Csíkszereda before moving on to Miskolc for four seasons and two seasons with Brasov, this past offseason he signed with Debrecen. He won the MOL League with HC Csíkszereda and also finished runner up with Brasov.
He played with a number of future MOL League players in his home country such as Peter Klouda, Peter Filip, Jozef Hruby, Peter Ordzovensky, Milan Varga, Tomas Valecko and Stanislav Kozuch among a number of others. Interestingly enough he was the quarter finals MVP last season with Brasov and now he won the title again with his new team. Martin took time out from his day to answer some questions for icehockey.hu.
Debrecen is your fourth MOL League club after playing for Transylvanian and Hungarian clubs, what experience have you collected and how do you like Debrecen?
I really like Debrecen and have been very satisfied, I have to admit I did not have the most ideal start to my season and it took me time to get used to the smaller rink. I am more used to the larger ice surface and having more time to react to things. I also had trouble getting sued to the Russian style we were playing but everything is great right now.
After your first full season in Csíkszereda you went back to Slovakia but you still finished the season in the MOL League, what is that, that has kept you in the league this long through a number of club changes?
I really liked the league during my first Csíkszereda season and I have some great memories from my time spent in Miskolc and Brasov as well. I had agrees to stay with the team however the management decided not to have any imports on the roster for this season. I had gotten in contact with Debrecen who had previously been interested in in signing me. We had no issues in agreeing and I can say they have done everything professionally, no they need to concentrating on building up solid hockey team.
You are one of the few import players in the MOL League who has played here from the start, how much has the league changed since then?
Aside from a short period away I have been playing in the league from the start. It is a quality league, there were seasons with new teams and sometimes teams had some final issues, but overall the teams have been stable. One thing that I have noticed is that more and more young players are popping up in the league, which is great to see.
How are you preparing to face your former team and what does the future hold for you?
Miskolc is the favored team in the series, they have a very strong team. Playoff games are different from regular season games and we are ready to do what it takes to win. My contract is for two seasons so I will be with Debrecen next season as well.