tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45753690840143927212012-01-12T18:04:45.308+01:00Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comBlogger1241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-22855719878519408482009-10-14T14:52:00.001+02:002009-10-14T14:56:27.017+02:00

As from today EP Austria is back online to provide you the hottest news on the EBEL, other Austrian leagues and hockey in Slovenia. So check out our channel at twitter.com!Link: EP Austria@twitter.com

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-3843508739687452222009-05-24T14:40:00.002+02:002009-05-24T14:42:10.960+02:00

The Russian KHL is going to hold its first draft on June 1st. The 24 teams are going to choose overall 96 players in four rounds. For these purposes, the league published a list of 749 players in the age of 17 to 21 (Russian citizens: 17-20), who are available for the draft. The list includes two players from the EBEL: Székesfehérvár’s backup goalie Zoltán Hetényi and his fellow-countryman Dániel

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-40951331480069754922009-05-20T17:22:00.001+02:002009-05-20T17:29:27.258+02:00

As reported by EP Austria, goalkeeper Jürgen Penker has signed for another year with Elitserien’s Rögle BK. With Penker and Thomas Raffl, who already signed a two-year-contract with Luleå Hockey in February, two Austrians are therefore going to compete in the Elitserien in 09/10.However, two other Austrians will be playing in the second-tier Allsvenskan: The Sweden-born defender Victor Lindgren

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-35477259508918647612009-05-18T16:30:00.002+02:002009-05-18T16:33:42.877+02:00

The exodus of players at Jesenice has seemingly not come to an end yet. Aleš Kranjc, the club’s best defender, has left HK Jesenice for Vienna Capitals, three of the best forwards, David and Marcel Rodman (both Vienna Capitals) and Jean-Philippe Paré (Graz 99ers), have also signed contracts with other clubs in the league. However, all indications are that the list of departures will still be

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-18585509426548029292009-05-13T16:55:00.001+02:002009-05-13T17:00:25.326+02:00

The Austrian national team’s backup goaltender, Jürgen Penker, has signed for another year with the Swedish Elitserien team Rögle BK. The 26-year-old, who came to the Ängelholm club from Danish Hvidovre in October 2008, experienced a satisfying first year in the Elitserien. He appeared in 30 matches during the regular season and achieved a GAA of 3.23, a save percentage of 90,05 and two

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-3802577932849726252009-05-13T11:37:00.001+02:002009-05-13T11:40:30.031+02:00

Despite failing to achieve any of the two goals set - the qualification for the Olympics 2010 and the return to the 16 top nations from Division 1 - John Harrington will keep his job as head coach of the Slovenian national team. The Slovenian federation announced that the contract with the US-American has been extended for another year. Earlier this week, Harrington signed with Italian Serie

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-83191449000365834862009-05-10T23:12:00.002+02:002009-05-10T23:16:11.999+02:00

In addition to the data already presented, here are the positions 1 to 6 in the 2009 IIHF World Ranking:With Russia’s win in the final of this year’s World Championship tonight, also the grouping for the 2010 tournament is fixed and completed:

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-90580473765307137582009-05-08T09:35:00.004+02:002009-05-08T11:54:05.965+02:00

The Austrian U20 national team achieved promotion to the top ten nations in the world in December, while the U18 team failed by a narrow margin only. Austria’s junior hockey, basically driven by the youth programmes of three clubs (Villacher SV, Klagenfurter AC, EC Salzbzurg), is gaining ground and shows a rather promising development. To provide a somewhat deeper insight in the group of the

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-85531911816407666092009-05-07T23:28:00.002+02:002009-05-07T23:34:31.868+02:00

With tonight’s results from the World Championship in Switzerland, the grouping for next year’s tournament in Germany is almost fixed. Only the final positions of Russia, Canada and Sweden in the 2009 IIHF World Ranking remain open. If Sweden loses its semi-final against Canada tomorrow, 'Tre Kronor' will join group C.2010 IIHF World Championship - Groups so far:

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-64278777266573661442009-05-07T22:13:00.001+02:002009-05-07T22:15:14.509+02:00

By finishing 14th in the current world championship, Austria gained 860 points in the World Ranking of the IIHF. This implies that Team Austria overtakes Slovenia but is itself overtaken by France and therefore remains on position 16 in the ranking for 2009.

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-83583336893058026442009-05-05T16:54:00.001+02:002009-05-05T16:58:45.666+02:00

Austria’s national team got relegated from the A-pool due to a 2:5 loss against Denmark yesterday afternoon. Switzerland 2009 is the sixth time that Austria has to leave the top flight (after Stockholm 1949, Moscow 1957, Vienna 1996 and 2005, Moscow/Mytishchi 2007). As Germany will be hosting next year’s world championship and thus can not be relegated, Austria has to step down to Division 1

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-7475140731159811712009-05-03T04:52:00.002+02:002009-05-03T04:56:36.499+02:00

24-year-old winger Benoit Mondou, who joined Villacher SV at the end of December 2008, is as expected on his way from the club. After a promising start (15 points in 15 games), Mondou was handicapped by injuries later on and did not score any points in his five play-off appearances. As Villach projects to have only five import players on the roster for the next season, the club refused to offer

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-5059611467718944572009-05-01T11:27:00.001+02:002009-05-01T11:30:16.335+02:00

For today’s match against Hungary, Austria’s first in the relegation group, the roster has been extended by winger Harald Ofner and defender Mario Altmann. They substitute the injured Michael Raffl, Robert Lukas and Christoph Harand.For Team Austria only a win against their neighbouring country counts as they have to leave both Hungary and Denmark behind them in the group to avoid relegation to

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-20223873556103507252009-04-30T11:52:00.002+02:002009-04-30T11:55:32.381+02:00

As Slovenia failed to achieve re-promotion to the top 16 nations in this year’s World Championship Division 1, the national federation is now applying for the organization of one of the two tournaments next year. Slovenia is going to face Poland, the United Kingdom, Croatia, South Korea and the one of the two teams relegated from the A-pool ranked lower in the 2009 IIHF World Ranking (see

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-52248132751070600932009-04-29T21:02:00.003+02:002009-04-30T11:14:43.616+02:00

A rather chanceless Team Austria lost its ninth group stage match at an A-pool world championship in a row today. Latvia took an easy 2:0-win to advance to the qualification round after shooting out their opponents with 37:21 (Note: Check out EP Austria’s live commentary in our twitter.com channel). Austria, which had its undoubtedly best player in goaltender Bernd Brückler (SVS% 94,6), was

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-58095054741222806232009-04-29T03:14:00.003+02:002009-04-29T03:31:54.722+02:00

Be sure to join Elite Prospects Austria’s live commentary for the Austria vs. Latvia game. We’ll get started at 16.00 CET on our twitter.com channel.

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-36925992002057655462009-04-29T02:57:00.002+02:002009-04-29T15:10:16.347+02:00

GK Bernd BrücklerD1 Gerhard Unterluggauer - Darcy WerenkaD2 Martin Oraze - Jeremy RebekD3 Andre Lakos - Philippe LakosO1 Thomas Vanek - Thomas Koch - Matthias TrattnigO2 Oliver Setzinger - David Schuller - Andreas NödlO3 Markus Peintner - Roland Kaspitz - Christoph HarandO4 Gregor Baumgartner - Paul Schellander - Andreas Kristler

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-8097063183474144372009-04-28T18:02:00.002+02:002009-04-28T18:09:15.408+02:00

Austria will try to avoid the relegation group against Latvia tomorrow, only a victory in regulation counts. A look back into the history causes reasonable doubt that they will succeed: Since becoming a more or less regular participant in the A-pool world championship in 1993 (14 participations in 17 years), Austria has won only 14.3 percent (7 out of 49) of its group stage matches. Furthermore,

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-54077936275432845842009-04-28T10:18:00.002+02:002009-04-28T10:21:40.436+02:00

Just like on Saturday against Sweden, Team Austria showed a disastrous performance in the third period against the United States last night as well. While trailing by just one goal after two periods, Austria lost the third with 0:4 again - final score 1:6. Thereby, the United States have won for the tenth time against Austria in an A-pool match in the world championship (see overview stated below

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-63564621562440810222009-04-27T15:04:00.003+02:002009-04-27T15:12:45.745+02:00

Following the disastrous defeat by Sweden in their opening match, Austria takes on Team USA this afternoon. Goalkeeper Bernd Brückler will be substituted by Jürgen Penker, Andreas Nödl arrives at Bern today but is not eligible to play yet. With Robert Lukas extending the injury list as reported, head coach Lars Bergström has only six defenders available. This implies that the originally benched

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-54810450564423622012009-04-26T15:42:00.000+02:002009-04-26T15:43:02.978+02:00

The Austrian Ice Hockey Federation received an appearance fee of € 200.000 from the IIHF for participating in the current World Championship. Elite Prospects Austria is now able to reveal that the federation pays out bonuses to all players on the roster as well: Every player representing Austria in this tournament receives a total amount of € 2.000.

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-9001494734169951062009-04-26T13:10:00.003+02:002009-04-26T13:13:41.017+02:00

With the Philadelphia Flyers being eliminated from the Stanley Cup Play-Offs last night, it is now clear that Andreas Nödl (pictured above) will join Team Austria in the World Championship. The club granted the permission for the 22-year-old’s participation in the tournament and Nödl is going to arrive at Bern on Monday. The NHL rookie, who appeared in 38 matches for the Flyers this year, fills

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-48482150657952384522009-04-26T11:12:00.002+02:002009-04-26T11:14:24.105+02:00

Some statistical evidence regarding Austria’s predominantly ridiculous defence performance last night: How long did it take Sweden to score a goal, when a certain Austrian defender was on the ice?

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-20849013295753246422009-04-25T13:28:00.000+02:002009-04-25T13:30:41.104+02:00

With the objective of an even more up-to-date coverage, Elite Prospects Austria just entered the world of twitter.com. We’ll publish brief information, breaking news and references to updates of this blog at twitter.com/EPAustria from now on. Enjoy!

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-79284225747488893492009-04-25T12:49:00.003+02:002009-04-25T13:07:00.772+02:00

Elite Prospects Austria is able to reveal the lineups for tonight’s opening match of Team Austria against Sweden. Austria’s lines are going to look like as suggested yesterday. Bernd Brückler and Johan Holmqvist will be the starting goaltenders.Team SwedenGK Johan HolmqvistD1 Magnus Johansson - Tobias EnströmD2 Kenny Jönsson - Johan ÅkermanD3 Nicklas Grossman - Dick TärnströmO1 Loui Eriksson -

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-25510811614789762492009-04-24T16:37:00.002+02:002009-04-24T16:50:12.296+02:00

Austria is back among the 16 best hockey nations in the world and the main goal for the upcoming World Championship is to remain in that group. A mission made even more difficult by the long list of players being sidelined due to injuries that includes captain Dieter Kalt, NHL-defender Thomas Pöck and sniper Thomas Raffl.Under these circumstances, head coach Lars Bergström has composed a roster

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-35044248853667282009-04-24T12:10:00.000+02:002009-04-24T12:12:45.204+02:00

Slovenian U20 international Rok Tičar, who recently made his debut in the senior national team, is about to leave Timrå IK after two years at the club. The 19-year-old played two seasons with the club’s U20 team in Swedish junior hockey’s top division and even appeared in five Elitserien matches for the seniors. Now not only his contract is expiring but also his junior career is over as he turns

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-41312941157612063902009-04-24T00:01:00.001+02:002009-04-24T00:03:23.591+02:00

The Graz 99ers, recently very effective in signing young Austrian players, have called up four players from their U20 to their senior team for the next season. Bill Gilligan’s side will be strengthened by Lukas Peicha, Martin Glanzer and Florian Goriupp, who played their last year of junior hockey in the season 08/09. Furthermore, Gilbert Lehmann, who is still eligible to play for the 99ers’ U20

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-55017448364781221552009-04-23T23:30:00.004+02:002009-04-23T23:37:25.041+02:00

Austrian national team head coach Lars Bergström announced his final roster for the group stage of the World Championship today. The team consists of 19 skaters plus two goalkeepers, which implies that one spot on the roster remains open (see complete roster list here on eliteprospects.com). The spot is reserved for Andreas Nödl from the Philadelphia Phantoms (AHL). Phantoms are down to their

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-52687322877158201042009-04-23T17:02:00.001+02:002009-04-23T17:05:24.837+02:00

»Wer is the top scorer in the fucking league, wer is the top scorer in the league? Bousquet!«, Greg Holst stated in his legendary interview on Austrian television. Dany Bousquet - who has been playing with Villacher SV for three years, collecting 215 points in 167 games and scoring the championship-winning-goal in 2006 - left the Blue-Whites prior to the 08/09 season for Schwenningen in the

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-18021657846579215152009-04-23T14:58:00.002+02:002009-04-23T15:02:06.651+02:00

After detailed research Elite Prospects Austria is able to present all information on the players on Team Austria’s roster for this year’s IIHF World Championship in Switzerland. The document stated below includes thirteen indicators on every individual player:NameDate and Place of BirthHeight/WeightStick SideCurrent ClubAppearances, Goals, Assists and Points in International GamesAppearances in

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-56298314397382099892009-04-23T09:22:00.001+02:002009-04-23T09:28:51.679+02:00

As Elite Prospects Austria reported three weeks ago, Austrian national team goaltender Bernd Brückler has been negotiating with four teams from the Russian KHL and one from Swedish Elitserien. These negotiations have now reached a settlement, as the 27-year-old sent a signed two-year-contract back to Russia yesterday afternoon. Brückler joins KHL side Torpedo Nizhny Novogorod, which finished 11th

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-47069863718212119582009-04-22T17:25:00.006+02:002009-04-22T19:32:18.824+02:00

When newly promoted Team Austria starts its campaign at the IIHF World Championship with a game against Sweden on Saturday, they not only have to face an opponent of world class, but also a rather dark historical record. Actually, the Austrians won only three out of 19 matches ever played between these two countries, and one of them - at the World Championship 1930(!) - only by walk over. The

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-38559572714977675092009-04-21T21:56:00.002+02:002009-04-21T22:03:09.835+02:00

As it took the Austrian Ice Hockey Federation some weeks to publish the final statistics for this year’s U20 championship, the data is now finally up-to-date on eliteprospects.com as well. The Klagenfurter AC won its 19th title since the forming of the Austrian U20 league back in 1973 by beating EC Salzburg with 3:2 in the deciding third game of the final series. Villacher SV, champion in both 06

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-55853876891264583702009-04-19T23:18:00.001+02:002009-04-19T23:21:05.575+02:00

EHC Lustenau, this year’s champion of the Nationalliga, Austria’s second league, announced the extensions of the contracts of the team’s two Finnish key players Toni Saarinen and Juha-Matti Janhanen today. The Hämeenlinna native Saarinen, who played nine seasons in the SM-Liiga, signed a contract expiring as late as 2013. He collected impressive 386 points in his past four years (161 games) with

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-34191829590797413712009-04-18T16:26:00.002+02:002009-04-18T16:32:48.534+02:00

Slovenia’s best goalkeeper, Robert Kristan, is already looking forward to the next season as the current for him ended as early as January, when he left Allsvenskan team Mora IK for personal reasons and went back home to Slovenia. However, he did not come to an agreement with his mother club HK Jesenice for the remainder of the season. Due to the resulting lack of match practice, Kristan was not

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-9948252335029053132009-04-17T17:05:00.001+02:002009-04-17T17:11:59.703+02:00

All indications are that Villacher SV will once again be the team with the lowest number of import players of all Austrian EBEL clubs in the season 09/10. Along with the already signed Dan Cavanaugh and Jonathan Ferland, the club plans to engage only three other imports, one defender and two forwards.VSV is scanning the market for a young foreign defender to substitute Martin Oraze, who left for

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-12932309339748311822009-04-16T14:08:00.001+02:002009-04-16T18:01:32.714+02:00

The recently expired season 08/09 indicated a distinct decline in the EBEL’s figures in attendance. The total number of fans in the arenas advanced with 15.97% to 907.740, but taken into account that the number of games increased from 254 to 310, the average attendance per game dropped by 5.41%. Seven out of ten clubs in the league recorded a decline compared to the season 07/08, with Hungarian

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-1422141835349831902009-04-16T13:45:00.000+02:002009-04-16T13:46:57.974+02:00

In addition to yesterday’s article on the transfer activities of the Graz 99ers, Elite Prospects Austria is now able to reveal the contract periods, which were previously undisclosed:Christoph Harand - 09/10Daniel Woger - 10/11Kevin Moderer - 11/12Martin Oraze - 09/10 (plus one optional year)

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-68594647774252734742009-04-15T17:10:00.002+02:002009-04-15T17:23:06.105+02:00

The brilliant reputation of head coach Bill Gilligan continues to help the Graz 99ers with signing promising native players. The club, which had major problems in engaging Austrian players of a certain quality over the last years, has already come to agreements with seven skaters of Austrian origin for the next season. Daniel Woger, who had a convincing rookie season in this year’s EBEL, joined

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-62936555405644920482009-04-15T13:26:00.002+02:002009-04-15T13:30:38.611+02:00

Note: Find the individual player statistics from Team Austria 2008/09 here.

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-71258150601383535862009-04-15T13:01:00.001+02:002009-04-15T13:09:56.240+02:00

Team Austria’s head coach Lars Bergström announced a roster of 26 players for the two final exhibition games against Norway and France on Sunday and Monday earlier today. This means that 25 skaters (including Thomas Vanek and Dieter Kalt) are still in the race for the 20 spots on the final roster for the world championships. The five dismissals to be made after the two matches will most likely

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-74425474529375773752009-04-14T21:59:00.002+02:002009-04-14T22:08:25.400+02:00

Austrian U18 international Kevin Puschnik from the Heilbronner Jungfalken in the German junior league DNL caused a major surprise by making it to the final version of the 2009 Central Scouting Rankings today. The 17-year-old son of former Austrian international Gerhard Puschnik (163 caps for Austria), who has not even been included in the midterm rankings, is listed as number 76 among the

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-122577173154804042009-04-14T20:47:00.001+02:002009-04-14T20:55:10.021+02:00

The Hungarian national team, which earned the return to the elite nations after 70 years by winning the Division 1 World Championship in Sapporo last year, is preparing for their world championship campaign at the moment. Currently the team performs a training camp in Munich, Germany. Just before the beginning of the training week in the Bavarian capital, head coach Pat Cortina cut the roster to

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-70005078522080011512009-04-14T17:28:00.003+02:002009-04-14T17:38:56.592+02:00

After the clarification of all insurance issues, it is now certain that Buffalo Sabres star Thomas Vanek, who scored 40 goals in 73 NHL matches this season, will join Team Austria’s campaign at the 73rd World Championships in Switzerland starting on April 24th. However, Vanek will be the Austrian’s only NHL player as Thomas Pöck (New York Islanders) cancelled his participation due to injury and

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-84141281276518495782009-04-14T15:25:00.000+02:002009-04-14T15:27:02.977+02:00

In five of the seven most important hockey leagues in Europe the champions have already been crowned, which means that five of the twelve tickets for the Champions Hockey League season 09/10 are already assigned.Clubs qualified for the group stageAk Bars Kazan (RUS), HC Karlovy Vary (CZE), Färjestads BK (SWE), HC Davos (SUI), HC Kosice (SVK)In addition: JYP Jyväskylä or Kärpät Oulu (FIN) and

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-19758089615049201352009-04-14T13:19:00.000+02:002009-04-14T13:20:44.489+02:00

Last week, HK Jesenice’s manager Matjaž Mahkovec offered his resignation to the club’s board. The officials accepted the motion unanimously and immediately started the search for a replacement. A decision may be made as early as today, as the board scheduled its next meeting for this evening. The club’s president Slavko Kanalec declared that he would like to fill the position with one of the club

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-14374159026293120552009-04-13T13:43:00.002+02:002009-04-13T13:48:09.792+02:00

The technical staff at eliteprospects.com has launched another useful tool in the statistics section of the page. As most of you may already know, you reach the main stats page by clicking the ‘EP stats’ button in the left frame. Now it’s also possible to sort the statistics of a certain league by two additional criteria: Teams and nationalities of players. Furthermore, the flags representing the

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-85782547725723859792009-04-07T18:10:00.002+02:002009-04-07T18:13:47.683+02:00

Unfortunately, the goaltending statistics on both the official website of the Austrian Ice Hockey Federation and the official website of the EBEL are incorrect in some minor cases. Additionally, an even more fundamental problem is posed by the GAAs (Goals Againts Averages) missing in both statistics, as they are of crucial importance in international comparison. Therefore, Elite Prospects Austria

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-15457607371886273402009-04-06T19:36:00.002+02:002009-04-06T19:42:37.968+02:00

Swiss giant SC Bern confirmed the appointment of Larry Huras as the club’s new head coach today. As Elite Prospects Austria reported some weeks ago, the 53-year-old visited Bern in March, now the former Villach head coach and the Swiss club have come to an agreement. Huras, who has been awarded as the EBEL’s coach of the year by EP Austria earlier today, signs a two-year-contract with the club,

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-42855621920624547772009-04-06T18:40:00.002+02:002009-04-06T23:21:08.355+02:00

By winning of the Austrian championship title yesterday, Klagenfurter AC secured themselves a spot in the first qualification stage of next year’s Champions Hockey League. In this phase, eighteen clubs divided into six groups are going to compete for six tickets for the second stage. Although almost all national champions from the countries on the positions eight to 22 in the International Ice

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-79898163946942778082009-04-06T12:15:00.003+02:002009-04-06T12:32:59.037+02:00

Based on extensive surveys in our broad network of experts on Austrian ice hockey, Elite Prospects Austria would like to honour some of the EBEL’s most outstanding players of the season 2008/09 - in categories similar to those applied in the NHL.EBEL Allstar Team (regular season)G Travis Scott (Klagenfurter AC)D Jeff Tory (Klagenfurter AC)D Lee Sweatt (EC Salzburg)W Pat Lebeau (Vienna Capitals)C

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-91111589120566169892009-04-06T10:52:00.001+02:002009-04-06T12:14:20.520+02:00

As previously mentioned, neither the Austrian ice hockey federation nor the league itself is compiling separate statistics for the Play-Offs. Therefore, Elite Prospects Austria offers complete individual player statistics from the EBEL’s post-season 08/09 as stated below.Link: Individual player statistics Play-Offs 08/09 (download at mediafire.com)

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-35493323445187883142009-04-05T20:35:00.005+02:002009-04-05T21:23:01.746+02:00

With a 2:1-win on home ice in the seventh game of the final series against EC Salzburg, Klagenfurter AC secured the 29th Austrian championship title in the club’s history today. The club, which has not won a single play-off match since April 2005, dominated the regular season and has been the strongest team in the play-offs as well. Therefore, the title - won in the year of the club’s 100th

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-5214262995536011032009-04-05T18:14:00.002+02:002009-04-05T18:21:05.375+02:00

Two years after Hardy Nilsson left his job as head coach of EC Salzburg, there is a Swede among the head coaches in the EBEL again: Johan Strömwall, who has been the assistant coach to Larry Huras at Villacher SV since November, gets promoted to the position of the club’s new head coach. As Elite Prospects Austria reported, Strömwall is the first Swedish and overall only fourteenth coach since

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-6247281403323316922009-04-05T13:29:00.001+02:002009-04-05T13:33:25.487+02:00

After a 4:3-loss after overtime in Oulu yesterday, Finnish vice-champion Espoo Blues are out of the race for this year’s title in the SM-Liiga. While Kärpät now meets first time ever finalist JYP from Jyväskylä (the club Austrian international Daniel Welser almost joined back in 2005), Blues take on KalPa in Thursday’s bronze medal match.This duel between the losers of the semifinals will be the

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-21611774580349473982009-04-04T17:17:00.000+02:002009-04-04T17:22:44.892+02:00

Slovenian champion HK Jesenice, which as we reported is facing serious financial problems, yesterday held a press conference to inform the public about the current state and future plans regarding the club. There, the club confirmed the leaving of brothers David and Marcel Rodman, who both demanded unaffordable for the second year on their respective 1+1 year contracts. The two highest scoring

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-48798865566357660182009-04-04T14:05:00.001+02:002009-04-04T14:12:03.479+02:00

Lars Bergström, head coach of the Austrian national team, has announced a highly surprising but also courageous roster for the two exhibition games against current world champions Russia in Innsbruck next week. The line-up includes seven freshmen without international experience on the senior level, six of them representing Villacher SV. The goaltender duo consists of Villach’s backup Bernhard

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-6500259543234255212009-04-02T18:01:00.002+02:002009-04-02T18:06:02.948+02:00

After the highly surprising 4:3-win against Latvia yesterday, which saw Austria catching up on a 0:3-deficit, the U18 national team had to cope with its first defeat in the ongoing world championship Division 1 today. The Austrians lost 1:4 to Denmark this afternoon and are now highly likely to drop out of the race for promotion to the world elite. In fact, Austria’s luck is in Latvia’s hands:

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-12046551854878093602009-04-02T17:19:00.001+02:002009-04-02T17:24:12.562+02:00

As transfer announcements are flooding in at eliteprospects.com at this point of the Silly Season, we would like to remind you of two useful tools to keep track of all the transfers you are interested in.On top of the main page’s right frame you can find your individual time options. The standards is set to display the “Latest 15” transfers but by selecting the other time periods (Today, Last

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-54531399419945411062009-04-01T00:03:00.001+02:002009-04-01T00:09:14.760+02:00

Austria achieved its second consecutive win at the U18 world championship Division 1 on Monday, when they beat France with 6:5. Just like in the opening match against Japan, Austria had to face a two goal deficit again. However, with 2:17 remaining, Kevin Puschnik from Heilbronn in the German junior league DNL scored the game winning goal, which was his third of the night. After having Tuesday as

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-51953069974215845162009-03-31T20:54:00.002+02:002009-03-31T21:16:55.994+02:00

As the Villacher SV announced on its official homepage today, Austrian international Gerhard Unterluggauer has signed a three-year-contract with his native club. The 32-year-old, who played 184 internationals for Austria and is therefore ranking as third in the list of players with the highest number of games in the history of Austrian, is going to return to the club he grew up in and represented

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-36550562305621042512009-03-29T17:57:00.002+02:002009-03-29T18:27:22.390+02:00

After Slovenia (see final player statistics of the tournament here) most surprisingly missing the promotion from Division 2 due to a 2:4-loss against the Republic of Korea yesterday, the Austrian U18 national team today started its campaign in the Division 1 (Group B) tournament in Asiago, Italy.However, the Austrian team, which is being coached by Kurt Harand, experienced major problems in the

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-79093933665777886562009-03-28T16:11:00.001+01:002009-03-28T16:15:20.162+01:00

Austrian goaltender Reinhard Divis, who is playing for Färjestads BK in the Swedish Elitserien, is aiming for the eighth championship title in his career. The club from Karlstad is already qualified for the finals, where they will have to face current champions HV71 or Frölunda. However, Divis’ contribution to the potential title is actually limited, as he has not seen a single second of ice-time

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-25077668839045119852009-03-27T16:58:00.002+01:002009-03-27T17:04:51.306+01:00

After being relegated from the world’s 16 top nations last year, the Slovenian national team has to play in the World Championship Division 1 this year. In group A, which is going to play in Vilinus, Lithuania between April 11th and 17th, Slovenia will have to face Australia, Croatia, Japan, Kazakhstan and hosts Lithuania.Yesterday, the Slovenian federation announced the preliminary roster of 31

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-63338839657399444422009-03-27T14:25:00.000+01:002009-03-27T14:28:41.732+01:00

Highly rated Austrian forward Daniel Woger has signed with the Graz 99ers for the next season on Tuesday. The 21-year-old winger recently finished his first season in senior hockey and collected 13 points in 55 games for HC Innsbruck. After his club’s withdrawal from the EBEL, the former U18- and U20-international was much sought after by a variety of Austrian clubs. Now Graz made the running for

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-84877433557081515912009-03-26T17:44:00.003+01:002009-03-26T17:51:30.720+01:00

Last summer, Austrian U20 international Robert Lembacher left Vienna, a city with rather gloomy prospects for junior hockey players and joined the Swedish club Luleå Hockey to spend his last season as a junior in a more professional and attractive environment.The 19-year-old defender made an impression at his new club right from the start and became a regular in Luleå’s strong junior team. By

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-55367807499027285522009-03-26T15:15:00.002+01:002009-03-26T15:17:17.585+01:00

With VSV’s head coach Larry Huras leaving the club after only one season, assistant coach Johan Strömwall is one of the obvious candidates for Huras’ succession. The 45-year-old from Sweden, who is currently also working as the assistant coach of the Austrian national team, now commented on these rumours for the first time in an interview with Swedish newspaper Norrbottens Kuriren. Strömwall

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-73371333286519467552009-03-25T22:45:00.001+01:002009-03-25T22:49:19.867+01:00

Last April, the Slovenian U18 national team started into the World Championship Division 1 in Toruń with a superb 5:0 win over hosts Poland. However, Slovenia lost all of their other four matches in the tournament and got relegated to Division 2.Presently, the team is fighting for the return to the second level on home ice in Maribor against rather exotic hockey nations such as Mexico and Spain.

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-49731986818368988842009-03-25T19:27:00.001+01:002009-03-25T19:31:02.825+01:00

On Monday, HK Jesenice secured its seventh Slovenian championship title with a 2:1 away win against Olimpija Ljubljana to sweep the best-of-seven series. However, Jesenice’s fourth national title in five years right now does not give reason for exalted celebrations or euphoria as the club is in serious financial problems (as EP Austria reported here).The majority of key players have been linked

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-57876560880455961572009-03-25T16:13:00.002+01:002009-03-25T18:43:11.349+01:00

After almost eight seasons in the Austrian league, Christian Ban left his native club Klagenfurter AC towards the end of the last season and joined Swedish Division 1 team Östersund Hockey. There he managed to score 13 points over the course of the remaining twelve games of the regular season, but the team failed to get promoted to the Allsvenskan through the play-offs.Ban did not return to

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-1353655266648124052009-03-24T21:09:00.000+01:002009-03-24T21:13:54.042+01:00

Voluntarily relegated HC Innsbruck, which started to cancel the contracts of the majority of its players two weeks ago, announced the first adjustments in respect of the next season today. Former assistant coach Jarno Mensonen was appointed as new head coach, his assistant is going to be the Austrian hockey legend Herbert Hohenberger (660 league games, 258 DEL-games, 158 internationals).

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-59618467227717893582009-03-23T17:48:00.002+01:002009-03-23T17:52:03.895+01:00

The Graz 99ers have recently successfully extended their contract with coach Bill Gilligan, who turned down an offer by Swiss giant SC Bern. After the most important decision regarding personnel being made, the club is currently working on the composition of its roster for the next season. Now, Elite Prospects Austria is able to reveal that at the moment only four Austrian players, Florian

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-67430327022140060552009-03-23T17:18:00.003+01:002009-03-23T17:31:13.931+01:00

On Saturday, one of Austria’s clubs richest in tradition, ATSE Graz, took the first step towards its comeback. With an impressive 8:1-win over DEK Klagenfurt on home-ice, ATSE secured the title in the Oberliga (Austria3-level) and thereby accomplished the promotion to the Nationalliga (Austria2). Note: See Austria’s league system here.ATSE, founded in 1947, is the long standing and traditional

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-13989934758961071442009-03-21T21:34:00.004+01:002009-03-21T21:38:38.301+01:00

The EBEL-club Alba Volán secured its tenth Hungarian championship title with a clear 4:0-win over Újpest tonight. Székesfehérvár has lost only one of their eight play-off matches and can therefore be seen as a well deserved champion. Canadian Nathan Martz stood for the today’s match’s highlight when he scored the 3:0 double shorthanded. Goalie Levente Szuper snapped his third shutout in seven

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-80364703556022737332009-03-21T13:27:00.002+01:002009-03-21T13:32:11.992+01:00

Despite the unclear situation concerning the head coach position, Villacher SV is working on the composition of the team for the next season. This week the club has extended the contract with key defender Mickey Elick, who is now bound to the club until April 2010.Elick missed a greater part of the season due to a shoulder injury first and a medial collateral ligament injury later. He appeared in

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-54246614572336194352009-03-21T13:25:00.000+01:002009-03-21T13:27:04.921+01:00

Like the two Slovenian teams Jesenice and Olimpija, Hungarian Alba Volán Székesfehérvár are playing in their respective domestic championship after the EBEL-season as well. They entered the competition in the semi-finals where they knocked out Dunaújváros, a team that also participated in the Austrian league back in 1999/00, with 3:0 wins.Now Székesfehérvár are facing Újpest Budapest in the

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-13192872214743486542009-03-20T15:15:00.003+01:002009-03-20T18:00:39.237+01:00

The head coach of Villacher SV, 53-year-old Larry Huras from Listowel, Ontario is probably not going to extend his contract with the club which finished fourth in the EBEL's regular season. Although negotiations with VSV were conducted immediately after the team was knocked out of the quarterfinals by EHC Linz, the two parties did not reach an agreement. As Villach's financial situation is

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-76362540554375426632009-03-18T14:04:00.001+01:002009-03-18T14:06:19.059+01:00

Klagenfurter AC won the second game of the best-of-three final series of the Austrian U20 championship against EC Salzburg last Saturday with 4:2 to equalise the series. Now, the third and deciding game is going to take place on Sunday in Salzburg.A nationwide U20 league was formed in Austria in 1973. Since then, only six teams were able to win the championship with Klagenfurter AC leading the

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-62114339327577790552009-03-17T16:24:00.001+01:002009-03-17T16:39:16.063+01:00

24-year-old forward David Wechselberger was one of the second league's most outstanding Austrian players this season. He scored impressive 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists) for the league’s underdog EHC Bregenzerwald which won only four out of its 31 games - one of them by an armchair decision.Bregenzerwald, the only team in the league playing home games open air, is highly interested in extending

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-14906197243356754742009-03-17T14:16:00.003+01:002009-03-31T23:49:59.334+02:00

Head Coach Kurt Harand has announced the roster of the Austrian U18 national team for the upcoming World U18 Championship Division 1 in Asiago, Italy. The majority of the players represent Villacher SV (eight), the roster also includes eight players from clubs abroad. Austria will have to face hosts Italy, Denmark, France, Japan and Latvia at the championship.Find the complete roster here on

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-45562509049265417222009-03-17T00:04:00.002+01:002009-03-17T00:08:26.491+01:00

Defender Mario Altmann from the Vienna Capitals, who appeared in seven international matches for the Austrian national team over the last two years, has signed a contract with Villacher SV for next season. The 22-year-old came in contact with VSV's chairman Giuseppe Mion, who is also an official for the National team, during the Euro Ice Hockey Challenge in Oslo, Norway in November. Thus, reports

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-52662178264224593382009-03-16T21:51:00.003+01:002009-03-16T22:07:39.145+01:00

Since the withdrawal of HC Innsbruck from next year’s EBEL season there have been a lot of rumours in Austrian media regarding clubs that might replace the Tyrolean side. Elite Prospects Austria can now reveal that three clubs from three different countries handed in written applications to the league’s management. The two other clubs seeking participation in the EBEL besides KHL Medveščak Zagreb

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-49717992356113915842009-03-15T19:14:00.002+01:002009-03-15T19:37:47.314+01:00

As Elite Prospects Austria already announced two weeks ago, eliteprospetcs.com is starting its service regarding free agents in several European leagues today. EBEL is included for the first time, so check out the league’s list of players without contract for 09/10 here.

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-48896234679331901042009-03-15T18:58:00.000+01:002009-03-15T19:01:17.818+01:00

Unsurprisingly, the meeting of the presidents of the EBEL clubs on Friday did not result in any major changes or agreements. HC Innsbruck’s withdrawal from the league has apparently not been an explicit enough warning, as all statements by participating officials issued after the meeting were of very informal and indistinct nature.Croatian Medveščak Zagreb, winner of the regular season in the

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-21446956325278762172009-03-15T18:52:00.001+01:002009-03-15T18:57:27.183+01:00

Highly talented center Jan Urbas made his breakthrough in Malmö’s senior team this season. He benefited from the Allsvenskan club’s financial problems which made a lot of players leave the team shortly before the end of the transfer period in January, thereby smoothing the way from the junior to the A-team for the 20-year-old Slovene.Three weeks ago, Elite Prospects Austria reported on Olimpija

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-89101116628808653652009-03-11T22:02:00.001+01:002009-03-11T22:06:37.663+01:00

Three goals by veteran Tomaz Vnuk secured Olimpija Ljubljana’s promotion to the finals of the Slovenian championship tonight. After a most astonishing 0:1-loss to Medveščak in the first game of the best-of-three series last Friday, Olimpija took revenge by beating their Croatian opponents in front of 3.000 fans in Zagreb with 6:3 yesterday. A 4:1-win at Hala Tivoli tonight (Goals: Tomaz Vnuk 3,

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-55789662758448394732009-03-11T13:24:00.003+01:002009-03-11T17:00:56.230+01:00

Elite Prospects Austria can reveal that VSV’s top scorer Dan Cavanaugh is most likely going to stay with the club. »We are in the process of working out a deal with Villach, although we have agreed to the terms«, the player stated. This means that there already is an agreement in principle but no signed contract yet.The 29-year-old from Springfield, Massachusetts has been one of the major

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-66195261063231564342009-03-09T09:58:00.000+01:002009-03-09T09:59:32.067+01:00

Elite Prospects Austria regrets the usage of indistinct wording in its recent article regarding the problems of the new arena project in Klagenfurt. The mentioned property in private hands is actually needed for infrastructural accessibility, while the land the arena itself is to be built upon - parcels 730/1 and 729/2 - is already fully in possession of the city of Klagenfurt, as the responsible

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-41573728713460546552009-03-06T22:04:00.004+01:002009-03-07T19:02:24.460+01:00

As HC Innsbruck announced its withdrawal from the EBEL on Tuesday, the mass exodus of players is about to start these days. Today, Austrian National team defender Gerhard Unterluggauer (pictured above) as well as Harald Ofner confirmed the cancellation of their contracts for the next season to the Austrian newspaper KTZ. Other players bound by contracts to be dissolved are Philippe Lakos and

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-58179042411871436532009-03-06T16:52:00.000+01:002009-03-06T16:56:33.096+01:00

When the semi-finals in the Slovenian league kick off tonight, HK Jesenice has to take a pass on another six players. Beside injured goalkeeper Matthew Yeats and defender Ales Kranjc, also Miha Brus, Gaspr Susanj, Maks Selan, Rok Jakopic, Ziga Jeglic and Saso Rajsar are not eligible for the match (and those to come) as the club committed formal errors in their registration process. All six played

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-47974124995722598432009-03-05T16:58:00.000+01:002009-03-05T17:00:42.438+01:00

The Klagenfurter AC, currently Austria’s championship record holder with 28 national titles, is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2009. This definitely provides an appropriate opportunity to start a worthy and prestigious project: A new arena.KAC is playing its home games in the "Stadthalle" which had been opened as long ago as 1959. Moreover, the arena is part of the city’s exhibition area,

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-12259474570194941892009-03-05T15:55:00.000+01:002009-03-05T15:56:16.075+01:00

Due to respective requests, we have now enabled the feed of this EP Austria Blog. You are now able to set a live bookmark to our service. For a brief instruction, click the link to mozilla.com stated below. Please note that Elite Prospects Austria recommends the usage of Mozilla Firefox as our pages are designed for this browser.Link: Live Bookmarks (mozilla.com)

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-80909586586610068472009-03-05T13:24:00.004+01:002009-03-05T13:29:21.554+01:00

As some of our readers might be wondering, we would like to refer to this Blog’s opening article: Elite Prospects Austria wants to provide you with a deeper insight in what’s going on and why. Our aim is not to present a continuous coverage on the league’s development, but to offer you some profound information from behind the scenes. This is why you won’t find scores or match reports here as

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-17636782161621311132009-03-05T10:44:00.005+01:002009-03-05T13:55:57.627+01:00

Apparently, Olimpija Ljubljana's problems in the current season are not coming an end. After finishing last in the EBEL and losing a handful of players on the last day of the trade deadline in January, (see article here) troubles for the club are continuing in the Slovenian championship now.Olimpija was supposed to enter the national title race in the semi-finals and face Croatian KHL Medveščak

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-78141318568808556422009-03-04T23:33:00.002+01:002009-03-05T14:36:09.736+01:00

After last night's board meeting and talks with their main sponsor, electricity supplier "Tiroler Wasserkraft", HC Innsbruck announced its exit from the EBEL. As the club ran into a deficit of about half a million Euro over the course of the current season, officials now profess themselves unable to continue its participation in the highest Austrian league.For any observer of the EBEL, these news

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-65562985011154572152009-03-04T13:53:00.003+01:002009-03-04T19:17:38.124+01:00

On the occasion of Wolfgang Kromp from Villacher SV making his 900th appearance in a league game last week, Elite Prospects Austria presents a list of 25 EBEL-players who played in the highest number of games in the Austrian league. Note that only currently active players who have been playing in the EBEL in 08/09 are included.Link: Most games played in the Austrian league (download at

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-54296885275431492942009-03-04T13:01:00.000+01:002009-03-04T13:02:06.389+01:00

The Hungarian EBEL-club Alba Volán Székesfehérvár announced yesterday that head coach Ted Sator is no longer working for the club. The former NHL-coach (NY Rangers 1985-1987, Buffalo Sabres 1987-1989) was released by the club hence a 4:3-loss to HC Csíkszereda from Romania in an exhibition game last week. Székesfehérvár, which finished the EBEL-season on position nine, is currently preparing for

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-18770414254774291992009-03-03T16:52:00.004+01:002009-03-03T17:01:21.924+01:00

EHC Bregenzerwald is in some way the big outsider in Austria’s second league (Nationalliga) as the club is organised more ore less like a family enterprise. All players except the (mainly Swedish) imports are amateurs and the club is the only one in the league still playing home games open air. Yet, in summer 2008 the first player raised and trained in the club had the chance to experience one

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4575369084014392721.post-89636563087713847922009-03-03T00:02:00.002+01:002009-03-03T11:42:49.731+01:00

With three clubs (HK Jesenice, Olimpija Ljubljana and Székesfehérvár) already being withdrawn from this year’s title race in the EBEL and therefore continuing in their respective national championships, Sunday night also brought the definite end of the season for the first two clubs in the league, HC Innsbruck (2:4 in games in the best-of-seven quarterfinal series against Klagenfurter AC) and

Elite Prospects Austrianoreply@blogger.com