HC Slovan Bratislava

HC Slovan Bratislava
City	Bratislava, Slovakia
League	Slovak Extraliga (1993–2012, 2019–present) Kontinental Hockey League (2012–2019)
Founded	1921 (1921)
Home arena	Ondrej Nepela Arena (capacity 10,055)
Colors	Dark blue, white, red
Owner(s)	JTRE sports & entertainment a.s. (Peter Korbačka, chairman)
Head coach	Peter Oremus
Captain	Michal Sersen
Website www.hcslovan.sk

Hockey Club Slovan Bratislava (Hokejový klub Slovan Bratislava) is a professional ice hockey club based in Bratislava, Slovakia. In 2012, it left the Slovak Extraliga and joined the international Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). In 2019, it returned to the Tipos Extraliga. The club has won nine Slovak championships (most recently in 2022), one Czechoslovak championship (1979) and one IIHF Continental Cup (2004), making it the second most successful hockey club in Slovak history after their biggest rival HC Košice. The team plays its home games at Ondrej Nepela Arena, also known as Slovnaft Arena. The team is nicknamed Belasí, which means the "sky blues" in English.

History

The sports club Slovan Bratislava was founded in 1919 as a football club, then called 1.CsSK Bratislava. In 1921, a hockey section was founded as "CsSK hockey". It played its first game in December 1924 against Wiener EV from Vienna, losing 6–1. In 1948, the name of the club was changed to Slovan Bratislava, which has been kept until today.

For many years following World War II, Slovan was the only Slovak representative in the highest Czechoslovak league, and achieved several second-place finishes in the championship. The only title in the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League was achieved under coach Ladislav Horsky in the 1978–79 season. Additionally, the youth teams won several championships.

After the separation of Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 1993, Slovan played in the Slovak Extraliga and won eight championship titles over 19 years.

In addition to the success achieved in Slovakia, Slovan also performed well internationally, with three Spengler Cup wins in a row in 1972, 1973 and 1974. It is also one of only four clubs to play all four seasons of the European Hockey League, progressing to the playoff stage each year. Another highlight was winning the IIHF Continental Cup in the 2003–04 season. From 2011 to 2013, Slovan participated in the European Trophy international pre-season tournament.

KHL

In March 2012, Slovan filed an application to play in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). On 21 June 2012, Slovan Bratislava was officially admitted to the KHL, after they fulfilled all necessary conditions. Founded in 1921, they were the oldest KHL team by a large margin, as there were no ice hockey leagues in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics prior to 1946.

2012–13 season

See also: 2012–13 HC Slovan Bratislava season

In May, Slovan signed Rostislav Čada as the new head coach for the first KHL season, who had had a KHL experience from working at Avangard Omsk. After playing two friendly matches against KHL teams and the European Trophy during the summer months, Slovan opened the 2012–13 season with a home game against Ukrainian HC Donbass on 6 September 2012, losing 2–4 in front of a capacity crowd. The first win was achieved 4 days later by defeating Spartak Moscow 2–1 after a shootout. During the NHL lockout between September 2012 and January 2013, the two defenders Ľubomír Višňovský and Andrej Sekera enhanced the team. Slovan ended the season with 78 points as 6th of the Western conference and thus clinched a play-off spot in their first KHL season. In the first play-off round, Slovan played against then-defending champion Dynamo Moscow and lost all four matches.

During the regular season, Slovan had sold out 25 out of its 26 home games with an average attendance of 9,977 spectators, which was the seventh-highest average attendance in Europe that season.

Mascot

Before the start of 2013–14 season, it was announced that the franchise will have a new mascot called Harvy. The mascot's name was determined by fans and its appearance will be of a bald eagle, which is also on HC Slovan's logo.

Rivalries

While competing in the Czechoslovak league, Slovan's main rival was HK Dukla Trenčín. While competing in the Slovak Extraliga, Slovan had various rivals around the country, most notably HC Košice and Trenčin

In Slovan's first two seasons in the KHL, its biggest rival was Lev Prague. The rivalry started when, in their first game, HC Lev's Zdeno Chára body-checked Slovan's team captain Miroslav Šatan, after which Šatan was out of the lineup for the rest of the season. The fairness of this hit was the centre of many discussions. The games between Slovan and Lev were among the most anticipated of the season for both teams. However, Lev Praha folded after the 2013–14 season.

Season-by-season record

This is a partial list of the last ten seasons completed by HC Slovan Bratislava. For the full season-by-season history, see List of HC Slovan Bratislava seasons.

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, OTW = Overtime/shootout wins, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, L = Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Season	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	Pts	GF	GA	Finish	Playoffs
2014–15	60	15	5	8	32	63	136	188	7th, Bobrov	did not qualify
2015–16	60	21	11	4	24	89	154	148	3rd, Bobrov	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 0–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2016–17	60	22	7	5	26	85	144	166	4th, Bobrov	did not qualify
2017–18	56	15	3	7	31	58	119	187	5th, Bobrov	did not qualify
2018–19	62	10	5	3	44	33	101	213	6th, Tarasov	did not qualify
2019–20	55	29	8	5	13	108	191	118	2nd, Extraliga	Not held due to the coronavirus pandemic
2020–21	50	26	6	4	14	94	146	115	4th, Extraliga	Lost in Semifinals, 1–4 (HKM Zvolen)
2021–22	50	32	3	5	10	104	189	118	1st, Extraliga	Slovak Extraliga Champions, 4–2 (HK Nitra)
2022–23	50	27	3	6	14	93	162	115	2nd, Extraliga	Lost in Quarterfinals, 2–4 (Dukla Michalovce)
2023–24	50	21	5	4	20	77	157	160	5th, Extraliga	Lost in Quarterfinals, 0–4 (Košice)

Honours

Domestic

• Slovak Extraliga
  • 1 Winners (9): 1997–98, 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2011–12, 2021–22
  • 2 Runners-up (2): 1998–99, 2009–10
  • 3 3rd place (5): 1994–95, 1995–96, 2000–01, 2003–04, 2008–09

• Czechoslovak Extraliga
  • 1 Winners (1): 1978–79
  • 2 Runners-up (8): 1948–49, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1961–62, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1969–70, 1971–72
  • 3 3rd place (9): 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48, 1962–63, 1965–66, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1972–73, 1979–80

• Slovak Hockey League
  • 1 Winners (2): 1940–41, 1941–42
  • 2 Runners-up (2): 1942–43, 1943–44

• 1st. Slovak National Hockey League
  • 1 Winners (2): 1981–82, 1989–90

• 2nd. Czechoslovak Hockey League
  • 2 Runners-up (1): 1954–55

International

• IIHF European Cup
  • 3 3rd place (1): 1979–80

• IIHF Continental Cup
  • 1 Winners (1): 2003–04
  • 3 3rd place (1): 2000–01

• IIHF Champions Hockey League
  • Groupe Stage (2): 2021–22, 2022–23

Pre-Season

• Spengler Cup
  • 1 Winners (3): 1972, 1973, 1974
• Tatra Cup
  • 1 Winners (5): 1974, 1975, 1990, 1997, 1998
• Rona Cup
  • 1 Winners (1): 1998

Players

See also List of HC Slovan Bratislava players

Franchise scoring leaders

These are the top-ten-point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed season.

•  *  – current Slovan player

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game

Points Player Pos GP G A Pts P/G Richard Kapuš C 583 194 305 499 0.86 Václav Nedomanský C 327 277 157 434 1.33 Zdeno Cíger LW 321 146 234 380 1.18 Martin Kuľha RW 420 187 184 371 0.88 Ján Lipiansky C 429 180 179 359 0.84 Marián Šťastný RW 225 204 153 357 1.59 Martin Hujsa LW 354 153 195 348 0.98 Ján Jaško LW 402 193 153 346 0.86 Dárius Rusnák F 314 170 164 334 1.06 Dušan Pašek C 327 174 132 306 0.94

Goals Player Pos G Václav Nedomanský C 277 Marián Šťastný RW 204 Richard Kapuš C 194 Ján Jaško LW 193 Martin Kuľha RW 187 Ján Lipiansky C 180 Dušan Pašek C 174 Dárius Rusnák F 170 Ivan Dornič RW 159 Martin Hujsa LW 153

Assists Player Pos A Richard Kapuš C 305 Zdeno Cíger LW 234 Martin Hujsa LW 195 Martin Kuľha RW 184 Ján Lipiansky C 179 Petr Pavlas D 175 Dárius Rusnák F 164 Václav Nedomanský C 157 Marián Šťastný RW 153 Ján Jaško LW 153

Staff

Head coaches

These are the head coaches of HC Slovan Bratislava since they joined the Czechoslovak Extraliga:

• Josef Maleček 1945 – 1948
• Michal Polóni 1948 – 1952
• Zdeněk Bláha 1952 – 1955
• Jiří Anton 1955 – 1957
• Michal Polóni 1957 – 1958
• Ladislav Horský 1958 – 1963
• Rastislav Jančuška 1963 – 1966
• Ladislav Horský 1966 – 1968
• Ján Starší 1968 – 1972
• Karol Fako 1972/73
• Ján Starší 1972 – 1974
• Juraj Mitošinka 1974 – 1976
• Ladislav Horský 1976 – 1981
• Jaroslav Walter 1981 – 1982/83
• Július Haas 1982/83
• Břetislav Guryča 1983/84
• Július Haas 1984/85
• Jozef Golonka 1985 – 1987/88
• Július Haas 1987/88
• R.Tománek 1988/89
• Július Haas 1988/89
• Ján Filc 1989/90
• Jaroslav Walter 1990 – 1992
• Dušan Žiška 1992 – 1997
• Ernest Bokroš 1996 – 1999/00
• František Hossa 1999/00 – 2001
• Miloš Říha 2001/02
• Július Šupler 2002/03
• Ľubomír Pokovič 2003/04
• Miloš Říha 2004/05
• Ján Jaško 2005/06
• Rostislav Čada 2006/07
• Zdeno Cíger 2006/07 – 2008/09
• Antonín Stavjaňa 2008/09 – 2010
• Pavel Hynek 2010/11
• Zdeno Cíger 2010/11
• Štefan Mikeš 2011/12
• Jan Neliba 2011/12
• Rostislav Čada 2012 – 2014
• Miloš Říha 2015 – 2017
• Vladimír Országh 2018
• Roman Stantien 2019 – 2021
• Robert Dome 2021 –

Hall of Fame

The following players associated with HC Slovan Bratislava have been inducted in various Halls of Fame:

Hockey Hall of Fame

Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Name	Category	Inducted
Peter Šťastný	Player	1998

IIHF Hall of Fame

The IIHF Hall of Fame is intended to honor individuals who have made valuable contributions both internationally and in their home countries.

Name	Category	Inducted
Václav Nedomanský	Player	1997
Vladimír Dzurilla	Player	1998
Jozef Golonka	Player	1998
Ján Starší	Builder	1999
Peter Šťastný	Player	2000

Team Photos

1993-94 team photo

External links

• [ Official website] — HC Slovan Bratislava

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