Just two years after announcing that there might not be a senior hockey team Dunaújváros, the Acélbikák are a stable middle of the pack team were only minutes away from making into the semifinals of the playoffs last season.
Dunaújváros had a one goal lead late in game seven against UTE and were about to upset the Budapest club to advance onto the semifinals of the playoffs. Újpest would end up tying the game up at 2-2 and winning in overtime. During the offseason the team did a bit of an overhaul of their roster, starting with the head coach. David Musial replaced Heikka Malkia on the bench, also five out of the top six scores from the 2017-18 season are gone as well.
Dávid Duschek is back in net after it looked like he would be the starting goalie in Debrecen. Estonian national team goalie Villem-Henrik Koitmaa also returns to be a solid backup who can also push Duschek to be on the top of his game.
On the back end there were a number of home grown players deciding to came back to the club where they started their career. Péter Hetény was the first was to return from Debrecen, and Tamás Erdély is back in Fejér county after spending the past two seasons with Ferencváros. The last and also most surprising one is the last minute addition of Attila Orbán who was planning to leave Fehérvár for Debrecen originally before their financial situations led him to sign with former league member Nové Zámky, however during the preseason the player and the club parted ways leading Orbán to return home to Dunaújváros. As of right now there is one import defenseman in Daniel Skripets who came to Hungary after spending last season in Ukraine. The rest of the unit is made up of players from last season as Gellért Hruby, Tamás Lencsés, René Léránt and Zalán Pál are all back.
Cseter, Becze and Dansereau are all gone, team had to go out in the offseason and bring in linemates for Zsolt Azari. Jakub Izacky, Daniel Nagler and Roman Blagoy look to be these three forwards. Mangemeant is expecting young players such as Márk Nagy , Mátyás Odnoga and Lörinc Tankó to take the next step forward and to being productive member of the forward unit. Gergely Borbás can still find the back of the net when needed and Péter Németh has a scoring touch as well. Look for the management to announce that they had added a number of former Debrecen players as well.
With the rest of the league improving during the off season it will be tough task for Dunaújváros to finish in the same position as the year before. However if the new players can perform the tasks that the management expects from them, they will not be an easy team to defeat.
Dávid Duschek: Making the playoffs is a must, last season we were 52 seconds away of making it to a shootout and advancing to the next round of the playoffs. With this team the second round of the playoffs would not be a surprise. The strength of this team is the team speed we have and the unity within the locker room. We really work and play for each other.
Key Additions: Tamás Erdélyi (Ferencváros), Péter Hetényi (Debrecen), Attila Orbán (Fehérvár, EBEL), Danil Skripets (Kiev, Ukraine), Roman Blagoy (Donetsk, Ukraine), Jakub Izacky (Novy Jicin, Czech3), Daniel Nageler (Villach, EBEL), Arnold Silló (MAC)
Key Departures: Stanislav Hudec (Csíkszereda), Jere Ölander (Gherdeina, AlpsHL), Tihamér Becze, Justin Cseter (UTE), Keegan Dansereau (MAC), Adrián Hüffner, Nikolai Ladygin, Danil Kaskov (unknown)
