The players of HK Spišská Nová Ves will enter the 2023/2024 season with the goal of not falling short of the high bar, but their priority goals will be offensive hockey, home victories and participation in the playoffs.
news-item-description">Slovak hockey player Martin Réway will continue his career in the Slovak extra league. He signed a contract with the team MHk 32 Liptovský Mikuláš, RTVS informed about it on its social networks.
After several changes, coach Vlastimil Wojnar’s squad is already closed, there is a question mark over the continuation of Branislav Rapáč, who is troubled by health problems. The players will diversify their preparation period with a tournament in Nice, France.
“We’re looking forward to it, we’ll meet Marseille and Nice there. I’m curious to compare our level with theirs.” said coach Wojnar, for whom the 2023/2024 season will be his second on the Spišská Nová Ves substitute. In the premiere year, he achieved a historic success with the team, which is a bronze medal. “I hear about it on every corner, it’s quite binding. There are 12 teams playing in the league and everyone wants to win the title. Everyone wants to be right in the playoffs. It will be difficult, everyone has strengthened and we want to keep our feet on the ground. The quarter-finals is our goal if that’s where we direct our efforts,” said Wojnar.
“We don’t want to lower the imaginary bar, but at the same time we don’t want to make big statements either. We don’t give anything to anyone for free and we want to have the identity of a hard-working team. We will go into every match humbly, but confidently.” striker Dalibor Bortňák remarked.
THEY FOUND A REPLACEMENT FOR RÉWAY
There were several changes in his squad, which mainly concerned foreign players. The goalkeeper position will be the same as last season, the defense did not go through a fundamental reconstruction either, and the management tried to replace those leaving the attack with typologically similar players. “We communicated with the management about all the players we selected after a certain collective agreement. We wanted a replacement for Martin Réway and Rostislav Marosz could take this position. He is a similar type of player. We want to replace the departures of Hayden Verbeek and Kale Kerbashian with Olivier Archambault and Todd Burgess,” revealed Wojnar, who knows Marosz from the Czech extra league.
He expects that he should be one of the leaders of the team. “Simply put, he is a hockey player. He has excellent peripheral vision and feel for the game. He is not an excellent skater, but he is the type of player who can play hockey, can speed up the game, and we believe that he will help us.”
BRANISLAV RAPAČ MAY FINISH
At the beginning of the joint training, the continuation of striker Branislav Rapáč is uncertain. Since the end of the last season, he has been suffering from health problems, which he was unable to solve even during a three-month break. “During training, which was the day before the semi-final series with Zvolen, I made a bad move. Something poked me in the groin and the pain increased. I played the whole series with injections and pills. I thought that if I rested after the season, then it will be good and it will be fixed. But the opposite happened, it got worse and the MRI showed that it was inflammation, and it was chronic and it was in a place where it was difficult to treat.” Rapáč revealed.
He added to the so far unsuccessful treatment: “I’ve tried everything possible. I’ve taken pills, injections, I’ve done all kinds of things in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but so far no one can help me. I know that one basketball player also had it, who didn’t play for 10 months and is still not fit. Currently I don’t know how to do things to the full. It hurts me a lot with hockey movements. I’m set in such a way that if it doesn’t go away in 2-3 months, I won’t push it harder. I also have a plan B and C. Coach Wojnar knows my situation.” Rapáč added.
Defender Martin Knižka is fighting for a contract with the club’s management, who is awaiting a three-month trial. “I will do everything to stay in the team as long as possible and show myself in a good light. Spišská already had an excellent team last season, and there will be strong competition in the team this time as well. We already had an agreement during my time in Nové Zámky, but in the end, it developed in such a way that it didn’t materialize. Then Rišo Rapáč phoned me saying that he was interested in me coming. I’m coming back more experienced and I hope I’ll do well.” stated Knižka for TASR.
TWO MAIN PARTNERS HAVE LEFT
Branislav Rapáč, as in previous years, helped his brother Richard with the preparation of the club for the following season. In addition to player transfers, they also dealt with the club’s economic side, including finding sponsors. It might seem that their job was easier after the historic season, but according to Rapáč, the opposite was true. “It was the most challenging of all, because we lost two of our main partners. That meant a huge package of money that we had to replace. Thank God, we managed to do it and we are going into the season in good financial condition.” stated Branislav Rapáč with the addition that player salaries have increased by 40 percent. “After a successful season, we tried to extend the contracts of players whose contracts ended. After an excellent season, the salary demands of the players increased, that’s normal. We changed several foreigners, that will happen all the time. we managed to keep it and I believe that we also hit the new ones correctly.”
2023-07-31 10:15:00
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