Tag: Tomas Fucik

“Stronger Every Year” 2019-20 PHL Team Previews: LOTOS PKH Gdansk

Leading up to the start of 2019-20 season, we will preview every team in the PHL

Every year since Gdansk made their PHL debut in 2016, they continue to build a better team than the year before. This year is no exception to that, in part due to their new sponsor of Lotos. The team lost a few key players in goaltender Evan Cowley and defensemen Matej Cunik and Robin Maly. Gdansk more than replaced them with a few new imports. The most significant additions though may have come late in the season last year after signing a couple of former Opole players after they left the team. Some new faces and a full-season of some top imports could push Gdansk up the standings again.

Forwards

Alexander Golovin Vladislav Yelakov – Jan Steber

Josef VítekPetr Polodna – Mateusz Danieluk

Yegor Rozhkov – Igor Smal – Szymon Marzec

Filip Pesta – Jakub Stasiewicz – Krystian Mocarski

Other forwards: Bartosz Woloszyk, Pavel Popov

Alexander Golovin and Vladislav Yelakov both came over from Opole midseason. Golovin increased his production, but Yelakov saw his scoring drop from a 1.28 PPG to 1.09. Yelakov was originally on pace to be a top-five scorer in the PHL, and Gdansk will need him to score at that pace again. Jan Steber should fill in right beside the two very nicely, he is still an impact player in the PHL. Josef Vitek (38) and Petr Polodna (37) are both great veteran players that can provide secondary scoring. Igor Smal is a future star, and this year he should start to be relied on a fair amount. There are a lot of veteran players, seven out of the thirteen forwards are 33 or older, and possible declines will always happen eventually.

Defensemen

Ladislav Havlik – Yan Krasovsky

Vlastimil Bilcik – Konstantin Teslyukevich

Damian Szurowski – Tomasz Pastryk

Other defensemen: Gilbert Lesniak, Michal Narog,  Oskar Lehmann

The defense features all-around solid players being led by Ladislav Havlik and Yan Krasovsky. Havlik is a veteran of over 100 Tipsports Extraliga games at just 27-years-old, he previously played in the PHL with GKS Tychy recording 23 points (6-17-23) in 62 games. Krasovsky has played over 200 games in the VHL. He arrived late into last season for Gdansk recording 12 points (5-7-12) in 22 games. Its better than last year, but not a vast improvement.

Goalies

Tomas Fucik

Mateusz Studzinski

Wiktor Solinski

Tomas Fucik will be a nice replacement for Evan Cowley. While Cowley had quite the impact in his short time, Fucik showed before that he can be a starter in the PHL during his time with JKH GKS Jastrzebie. He didn’t have the greatest time in the Tipsports Liga last year posting a .907 SV%, but in the relegation play, he recorded a .946 SV%. It may be hard to beat Cowley’s play, but Fucik should be more than fine. Mateusz Studzinski is an excellent choice for a backup. He was quite the junior goalie, but his jump to the PHL has been a bit of a struggle.

Prediction: 8th

While Gdansk continues to improve as a team, their improvement this year wasn’t as good as other teams. The mid-tier of the PHL continues to get better and better, Gdansk is one of those teams improving it. This year though some teams made some significant moves to leapfrog Gdansk, while also considering the potential decline of veterans leaves Gdansk as my team finishing 8th this year.

If you want to keep up with all the offseason news, make sure to follow us on Twitter @PolandHockey and like our Facebook page.

Noureddine Bettahar Stays in the DEL2, Oskar Jaskiewicz Moves to Katowice. Weekly Offseason Update

This week in Polish hockey saw GKS Katowice take another former Podhale player, Cracovia invest in some young defensemen, and GKS Tychy getting a lot stronger, while outside the PHL Bettahar has found a DEL 2 club.

Noureddine Bettahar – One year deal with EC Kassel Huskies. Bettahar is going to be extending his stay in the German second league and with his fourth team in 4 years. Bettahar will be reuniting with Tim Kehler, one of his former coaches, in the team announcement of the signing Kehler said, “We are delighted to have signed Noureddine Bettahar for next season. I already know him from my time in Frankfurt in 2014. Noureddine is a young player who has not exhausted his full potential yet. He is a tall guy, but also runs well and also plays physically. I think that with the right environment and a given chance, Noureddine will be playing a strong season in Kassel.” (Translated via Google Translate) Bettahar was set to make his senior team Poland debut last year, til being concussed in a practice prior to the EIHC. This concussion ended up derailing his season as he missed a large chunk of the year and did not produce as well offensively when he returned to the line-up. He was not appointed to any other national team rosters. His national team status is once again up in the air.

Oskar Jaskiewicz – 2 year deal with GKS Katowice. National team defensemen Oskar Jaskiewicz has become the third national team player to switch to Katowice this offseason joining Mateusz Michalski and Patryk Wajda. The soon to be 23-year-old defensemen is one of Poland’s most promising young defensemen. It was rumored he was originally looking at offers in North America. He attributed part of the reason he signed in Katowice was Finnish coach Risto Dufva.

Radoslaw Sawicki – 2 year deal with GKS Katowice. GKS Katowice also extended the contract of Sawicki for 2 more years. The 23-year-old center had 25 points (7G, 18A) in 42 games last season.

Henrich Jabornik – 1 year deal JKH GKS Jastrzebie. The first new import in the PHL is here as Henrich Jabornik inked a one year deal with Jastrzebie. The 28-year-old represented Slovakia at the U18 and U20 IIHF World Championships in his junior career. He has spent in the last 3 years in the Erste Liga most recently with Dunaújvárosi Acélbikák. There he had 10 goals and 27 assists in 44 games.

Mike Cichy and Alex Szczechura to stay with GKS Tychy, and be joined by Jesse Rohtla. It appears that Mike Cichy and Alex Szczechura are close to new deals to stay in GKS Tychy as well is Jess Rohtla. Cichy and Szczechura have been two of the top scorers in the PHL since they arrived in 2014-15 and 2015-16. The two have played together every year since 2015-16. Rohtla arrived in the PHL in 2017-18 and lead the league in points with 53 (13G, 40). He returned to Poland this season and again played with GKS Katowice, where he had 44 points (22G, 22A) in 42 games. Now it appears the playmaking center is joining two of the other top scoring forwards in the PHL.

Patryk Gosztyla and Mateusz Bezwinski training with Cracovia Krakow. It appears Cracovia has invested in injecting some young defensemen in their line up next year. Gosztyla had played in the Slovak juniors system since 2015-16. The 19-year-old played last year for HK 32 Liptovsky Mikulas U20 and represented Poland at the U20 World Championship. Mateusz Bezwinski was a standout player at the U18s for Poland. The 17-year-old played mostly with SMS Torun last year, where he had 33 points (21G, 12A) in 22 games. He can move up and down the lineup.

Gdansk may have their goalie in Tomas Fucik. According to hokej.net, the 25-year-old netminder is close to a deal with Gdansk. Fucik previously played in Poland from 2016 to 2018 with JKH GKS Jastrzebie. He posted sv% above .930 in both his seasons where he played a total of 42 games. He spent most of last season in the Tipsort Liga with MsHK Zilina.

If you want to keep up with all the offseason news, make sure to follow us on Twitter @PolandHockey and like our Facebook page.