HC Košice

Hockey Club Košice is a Slovak professional ice hockey club based in Košice that competes in the Slovak Extraliga, the top tier of Slovak ice hockey. It is the most successful hockey club in Slovakia and the former Czechoslovakia, having won the Tipos Extraliga nine times, the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League twice, the 1st. Slovak National Hockey League once, the IIHF Continental Cup once, the Tatra Cup ten times, and the Rona Cup four times. The club is nicknamed "Oceliari", which means "Steelers" in English.

HC Košice
Nickname	Oceliari
League	Slovak Extraliga
Founded	1920; 104 years ago (1920)
Home arena	Steel Aréna (capacity: 8,378)
Colours	Black, white, orange
President	Július Lang
Head coach	Dan Ceman
Captain	Michal Chovan
Website	www.hckosice.sk

History

 

Logo of HC Košice from 1962 to 1998

 

The previous HC Košice logo

The club was established in Košice in 1962 as an army hockey club called TJ Dukla Košice. At that time, there were two weak regional ice hockey clubs in the city. The new club was much stronger and joined the Czechoslovak Hockey League within two years. In 1966, Dukla changed its name to TJ VSŽ Košice. In 1986, the club became the Ice Hockey Champions of Czechoslovakia for the first time, beating HC Dukla Jihlava in the finals. It won again in 1988, beating HC Sparta Prague. At that time, the club was the second-best ice hockey club in Europe after CSKA Moscow. After Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, VSŽ Košice became a member of the Slovak Extraliga, which it soon went on to win three times. In 1998, the club changed its name to HC Košice.

On 24 February 2006, Košice left Lokomotíva Košice Stadium and moved to the newly constructed Steel Aréna. The arena is named in honour of the club's sponsor, U. S. Steel Košice, and is also known as L. Troják Stadium after one of the club's most popular players. Košice won the league for the fourth time by defeating HK 36 Skalica to end the 2008–09 season. A victory over HC Slovan Bratislava at the end of the 2009–10 season saw the club win the league for the second year in a row and the fifth time in total, which it followed up by beating HK Poprad in the finals of the 2010–11 season to secure the league for the third year in a row (the first "hat trick" in the league's history) and the sixth time in total. Košice qualified for the finals for the sixth time in a row at the 2012–13 season, but suffered a loss to HKm Zvolen. A victory over HK Nitra in the finals of the 2013–14 season led Košice to its seventh league victory. The club won its eighth and most recent league during the 2014–15 season, defeating HC '05 Banská Bystrica in the finals.

Honours

Domestic

Slovak Extraliga

•   Winners (9): 1994–95, 1995–96, 1998–99, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2022–23
•   Runners-up (7): 1993–94, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2002–03, 2007–08, 2011–12, 2012–13
•   3rd place (3): 2001–02, 2006–07, 2015–16

Czechoslovak Extraliga

•   Winners (2): 1985–86, 1987–88
•   Runners-up (1): 1984–85
•   3rd place (1): 1988–89

1st. Slovak National Hockey League

•   Winners (1): 1963–64

International

IIHF European Cup

•   Runners-up (2): 1986–87, 1988–89

IIHF Continental Cup

•   Winners (1): 1997–98
•   Runners-up (1): 1998–99

IIHF Super Cup

•   Runners-up (1): 1998

Pre-season

Tatra Cup

•   Winners (10): 1978, 1979, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1993, 2008, 2017

Rona Cup

•   Winners (4): 1995, 1996, 2009, 2013

Players

Current roster

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Source: hckosice.sk^[1]Source: eliteprospects.com^[2]As of 1 August 2023.

No.	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
99		Róbert Bačo	RW	R	21	2023	Košice, Slovakia
61		Marek Bartánus (A)	RW	R	37	2021	Liptovský Mikuláš, Czechoslovakia
55		Antonín Bartoš	D	R	20	2022	České Budějovice, Czech Republic
8		Chase Berger	C	L	29	2023	St. Louis, Missouri, United States
75		Alex Breton	D	L	26	2022	Sainte-Marie, Quebec, Canada
91		Michal Chovan (C)	LW	L	36	2019	Zvolen, Czechoslovakia
18		Radek Deyl	D	L	34	2020	Košice, Czechoslovakia
22		Hunter Fejes	LW	L	29	2022	Anchorage, Alaska, United States
89		Jakub Ferenc (A)	D	R	34	2022	Levoča, Czechoslovakia
24		Matúš Havrila	C	L	24	2020	Košice, Slovakia
84		Joona Jääskeläinen	RW	R	27	2022	Imatra, Finland
32		Jaroslav Janus	G	L	34	2022	Prešov, Czechoslovakia
11		Oliver Jokeľ	LW	L	32	2018	Košice, Czechoslovakia
63		Patrik Lamper	LW	L	31	2022	Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
47		Mário Lunter	LW	L	29	2023	Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
56		Vladimír Mihálik	D	L	37	2023	Prešov, Czechoslovakia
28		Jens Olsson	D	L	39	2022	Malmö, Sweden
39		Brett Pollock	LW	L	28	2022	Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
33		Dominik Riečický	G	L	31	2020	Košice, Czechoslovakia
77		Patrik Rogoň	RW	L	27	2021	Žilina, Slovakia
71		Eduard Šedivý	D	L	32	2021	Myjava, Czechoslovakia
92		Eduard Šimun	C	L	29	2023	Topoľčany, Slovakia
45		Lukáš Vaculík	RW	R	21	2020	Košice, Slovakia
25		Cooper Zech	D	L	25	2023	South Lyon, Michigan, United States
27		Tomáš Zigo	C	L	32	2023	Banská Bystrica, Czechoslovakia

Notable players

• Ladislav Troják
• Jiří Holeček
• Bedřich Brunclík
• Vincent Lukáč
• Igor Liba
• Jaromír Dragan
• Jiří Bicek
• Ľubomír Vaic
• Marek Svatoš
• Juraj Faith
• Rudolf Huna
• Peter Bartoš
• Martin Štrbák
• Miroslav Zálešák
• Rastislav Staňa
• Ladislav Nagy
• Peter Bondra
• Peter Ihnačák
• Miroslav Ihnačák
• Ján Lašák
• Arne Kroták
• Ivan Droppa
• Jerguš Bača
• Stanislav Gron
• Martin Marinčin
• Tomáš Jurčo
• Ján Laco
• Erik Černák

References

1. "Team Roster / HC Košice". www.hckosice.sk. Retrieved 2019-07-28.
2. "Team Roster / HC Košice". www.eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 2019-04-28.

External links

• Official club website
• Steel Arena website