Baltic Hockey League

[zero100scout]

Kaunas City & Airwell Energija rosters have been revealed on the LHF website!
Lithuanians only make up 42% of Kaunas' roster, the rest is Ukrainians and pretty low-level foreigners, not sure if that's good for Lithuanian hockey but it might make the team slightly stronger...
their roster: Kaunas City at eliteprospects.com
Energija's roster is mostly Lithuanians except for a couple Ukrainians & a Latvian, they also managed to sign Tadas Kumeliauskas, last season's Best Forward award winner. Apparently they have '07-born Otas Urvelis as well, who becomes one of a few '07-born players in the league (alongside Krisjanis Sarts & Roberts Janis Polis for HS Riga, Jurijs Sardanjans & Roberts Stamurs for Prizma, Oto Dimants for Kurbads).
Energija's roster: Energija Elektrenai at eliteprospects.com
Flaming hot take, but I'd love to see '08-born Olivers Murnieks get at least a game in this year. 2nd best scorer in the U17 league, 6 points in 5 games in the JAHL & 8G+1A in 3 U16 international games last year

 

[GX]

Energija attracting Verenis, Kumeliauskas and Binkulis from other LT teams seems like a flex. 3 out of 4 leading Lithuanian top scorers of last season. And they extended their core, apart from most of the Ukrainians they had.

 

[zero100scout]

Head coach of Kurbads would like to see Daugavins start the season playing for their team... I don't know any Latvian team that wouldn't want him

"Kurbads" treneris: Labprāt vēlētos, lai Daugaviņš sāk sezonu pie mums - Hokeja ziņas

Optibet hokeja līgas (OHL) komandas “HK Kurbads” galvenais treneris Toms Bluks sarunā ar “LSM“ dalījās domās par treniņprocesu.

hokejazinas.com

 

[tornaado66]

HC Panter with the most expensive tickets in the league?

Piletid – HC Panter

hcpanter.ee

13.50EUR base ticket price online, 15EUR in person, really high for the Baltic league

High indeed. Same as national teams games. It was a ridiculous 175 EUR for a season ticket. Now they decreased it to 100.
Tomorrow is a game against Kurbads so lets see how is the turnout. I will be attending.

 

[GX]

Now that all rosters are up, this would be my take on the power rankings. Seems like a very interesting season, as most teams look similar in strength. Hockey Punks is the only clear outcast.

Mogo
Kurbads
==
Zemgale
Panter
Energija
Prizma (some leaders likely to leave early on, so I expect them to drop)
==
Kaunas City
HS Riga
==
Hockey Punks

 

[HungryFrank]

Lithuanians only make up 42% of Kaunas' roster, the rest is Ukrainians and pretty low-level foreigners, not sure if that's good for Lithuanian hockey but it might make the team slightly stronger...

It is better to have a competitive team than having not-OHL level Lithuanians filling the roster spot. As long as Lithuanian top players play the league in some team, no harm no foul for hockey

 

[SoundAndFury]

So 3 weeks have gone and Energija's stars received 9-1 drubbing by middling Kaunas' foreigners and generally look like the weakest of Lithuanian teams. In general, early days of course but Kaunas' work in the offseason actually resembles something a functioning hockey club would do - assembling best team possible on a budget. Of course basically letting Binkulis, Bendzius, Verenis, Jasinevicius go seemed shocking but I must say the team seems better, especially on defense.

I don't want to harp on anyone's predictions too much though, I would have probably anticipated the same. Having said that, it's clear already that Kaunas is better than expected, Energija and Panter are worse both having allowed 9 goals against Kaunas in the game against.

 

[Sanf]

It is better to have a competitive team than having not-OHL level Lithuanians filling the roster spot. As long as Lithuanian top players play the league in some team, no harm no foul for hockey

Kaunas has acquired a czech-slovak unit after that. Most notable Ondrej Machala former junior representive. Though they did not atleast yet click very well atleast in Continental cup that I visited for few Ganes.

Though Gusevas and Zukauskas are at the moment only Lithuanians with bigger role in team. I can write longer repprt when I am back home and computer.

Edit. Quoted wrong person. Thats why I dont write from phone

 

[SoundAndFury]

Though Gusevas and Zukauskas are at the moment only Lithuanians with bigger role in team. I can write longer repprt when I am back home and computer.

Grybauskas is in the top-9 as well and Petiul might play himself into 1A/1B situation. Having said that, of course this team is an international mish-mash but it if we want to have something close to pro hockey this is the way to go. Guys who arrived are committed to having hockey as their career meanwhile Lithuanians, from what I understand, pretty much didn't want to do that. From what I understand, to many guys who left commitment was the bigger issue than the pay.

 

[Sanf]

Grybauskas is in the top-9 as well and Petiul might play himself into 1A/1B situation. Having said that, of course this team is an international mish-mash but it if we want to have something close to pro hockey this is the way to go. Guys who arrived are committed to having hockey as their career meanwhile Lithuanians, from what I understand, pretty much didn't want to do that. From what I understand, to many guys who left commitment was the bigger issue than the pay.

Yeah I´m not criticizing that much. Obviously competition is good for playing spots too. And I have no inside information. Just commenting on the few games that I did see.

Grybauskas yeah played in third line, but they are at the moment very thin on forwards. When Ivanchenko got injured they were down to 9 forwards. Cyvas and Nemasis (Not familiar about players but marked as Ds) played forward too and one from the Zukauskas line was double shifting at times.

My definition of big roles in here was in top two units or pp or pk. Grybauskas did not get more than last seconds of special units. And against Panter they were heavily playing top two lines.

Overall Ruzhnikov, Zukauskas and Honcharenko were much better than the other line and Honcharenko was IMO the MVP of the tournament. .Defence was at times troubles even with the weaker teams in tournament. Was not that sold on that.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Agree with all of this.

Machala, despite all the relative hype, only seems to have skating going for him. Also he lives to score between the legs, I guess.

Regarding the top line, completely agree. Also extremely baffled by Honcharenko's stats last year, looking at his play one would have assumed he skated circles around everyone in NA3HL last year.

 

[Sanf]

Agree with all of this.

Machala, despite all the relative hype, only seems to have skating going for him. Also he lives to score between the legs, I guess.

Regarding the top line, completely agree. Also extremely baffled by Honcharenko's stats last year, looking at his play one would have assumed he skated circles around everyone in NA3HL last year.

Yeah Machala had flashy rushes with speed, but that did not lead to much. I don´t think that the skill sets of players on that line is a very good mix. But at the end some of the players arrived just some weeks ago so there is time to click and prove me wrong.

Honcharenko surprised me too after just looking at his past stats. Can´t blame that some categorized him in the group of low-level foreigner without seeing him.

And apologies for Ivashchenko misremembering his last name in last post. Glad that he did not hurt himself more badly.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Last year's leading scorer Aivaras Bendzius returns to Kaunas after a brief 4 game hiatus in Vilnius. Which adds Lithuanians, addresses the critical lack of forwards, and in general is a major add of a known quantity.

 

[GX]

Prizma roster looks quite good. Not really a contender, but they are not that far off. Adding M.Redlihs, M.Sirokovs. Seems that Prizma/Olimp/Dinamo were all a single bubble, and now those guys, who wish to play, are back on one squad.

And, after a one year break, we once again have an NHL alumni in the league - Karsums joins Zemgale.

 

[SoundAndFury]

And Kaunas gets the first win against Latvian team, in Riga too. Against a very solid Prizma team.

 

[zero100scout]

And Kaunas gets the first win against Latvian team, in Riga too. Against a very solid Prizma team.

3 straight shorthanded goals in a single period and it could've been even more. Wow.

 

[GX]

Apparently Latvian federation has some interest from Poland, they may 'potentially find a way how to integrate 1-2 teams'.

 

[Albatros]

They could take Gdańsk and Toruń, but who knows with what money.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Gdansk could be interesting, Latvian league is an upgrade over the Polish 2nd division but travel of course is a major issue.

Anyway, I just came to gloat about Kaunas beating Kurbads which is the first Lithuanian win against a "big" Latvian team this year. Possibly in the history of the league, depending how on how you feel about certain teams.

 

[GX]

Energija did quite well in the past. Just taking a quick look at 2003-2006 period - they have wins over all the local grands - Metalurgs, Riga 2000 and ASK/Ogre.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Energija did quite well in the past. Just taking a quick look at 2003-2006 period - they have wins over all the local grands - Metalurgs, Riga 2000 and ASK/Ogre.

I didn't take that to be an iteration of the same league. In most ways, it wasn't.

 

[tornaado66]

Panter got Fedorovits from Elektrenai. A decent add for depth.

They play against Mogo today with their full lineup, as they are only missing Lubnin from defence, but it should not matter much. I think todays match could show what Panter is capable of. They did not play their best against Zemgale (0-8) and Mogo (2-5) last time around and I feel like to should be better than that and hopefully we see it today.

 

[tornaado66]

3-6 loss for Panter. Mogo capitalised on Panter's stupid mistakes. Linde-Parras-Kiik line has been quiet in important games. They need to be better.

 

[Stumbledore]

delete

 

[Jakub97]

HK MOGO, congratulations on the title.


Guys who have been observing the league this season;


How would you summarize it?

Do you see some positive progress in Baltic hockey?

Attendance in comparison with previous years?



I only have seen some short sequences of the games and my guess right now is that the top 4-5 teams could play even games with our Slovak "SHL" teams (second tier).



Do you think that HK Liepaja or other teams will join/ rejoin the league next year?


I know, many questions. I am just superbly curious.


Cheers!