HC LEV Prague | A new beginning

[vtmx]

And now, news from a parallel universe where COVID-19 blew over in a couple of weeks...

LEV PRAGUE BACK IN KHL; WILL IT STICK AROUND THIS TIME?
July 1st, 2020

While the 2020/21 season of the Kontinental Hockey League is still more than a hundred days away, it is already shaping up to be a year full of surprises. The premier Eastern European hockey competition will once again expand its reach into Central Europe, as HC LEV Prague was approved as a last-minute expansion team by its board of directors.

In case you have forgotten, the Lev organization was a part of the league during for three seasons in the early 2010s. It was originally based in the Slovakian city of Poprad, before relocating to Prague before the start of the 2012/13 campaign. One season later, it reached the Gagarin Cup finals, where it lost to Magnitogorsk. Game seven of the series would later turn out to be its last, with the club ceasing operations later during the summer due to financial concerns.

Six years later, now owned by successful Czech entrepreneur Petr Kellner, the club returns the rough Prague borough of Holešovice and is looking to once again make its presence known in the league. The road ahead, however, looks difficult. The westernmost KHL team, which will share a division with CSKA, Minsk, Dynamo Moscow, Yaroslavl and Riga, will have to form its roster from scratch within the next few months, with only a very small expansion draft to aid their chances.

In two days, Lev will be able to pick one goalie, two defensemen and three forwards from the remaining clubs, with players aged 22 and younger being automatically protected. Each team can also lose only one player. In short, Prague will have to mostly rely on sourcing talent from free agency and the Tipsport Extraliga, Czech Republic's premier hockey competition. However, with a budget reaching almost $17 million, we can definitely expect it to make some noise on the market.

Calling the shots from the GM seat will be 39-year old Adam Hájek, an unknown figure in the hockey world. We can only wait and see what the inexperienced manager will do...

[vtmx]

LEV PRAGUE PARTNERS WITH SK KADAŇ
July 2, 2020

One day after the announcement of HC LEV Prague's admission into the KHL, further details are beginning to emerge about its way of operation. While it has already been revealed that the team opted to return to its former home, Holešovice's historic-yet-poorly maintained Tipsport arena, rather than the more modern and larger O2 arena, a further piece of the puzzle has been revealed to the public. Despite not having signed a single player yet, GM Adam Hájek has decided to partner with SK Trhači Kadaň from the Czech second-tier league, the Chance Liga.

However, don't expect to see world class stars roaming around in the Czech minors just yet, as Trhači will only receive the younger and less-experienced players from Lev's roster. In case any "big" names won't fit onto Prague's 25-man squad over the course of the upcoming season, they will most likely end up being loaned out to some of the clubs in the country's top league, the Extraliga. Nevertheless, this is still a very good piece of news for the small but loyal Kadaň fanbase, as their team was plagued with serious financial problems over the past four years. The club now finally has a shot at redemption.

(Autor's note: since the game unfortunately doesn't allow players to manually edit team affiliations, I have decided that I will manually move my redundant players to Kadaň or other teams by editing their contracts in commissioner mode. I think that's the only way to do it.)

[Alessandro]

Can't wait to see how this goes.
Too bad that we can't edit affiliations in the KHL, by the way.

[vtmx]

SUMMARY FOR JULY AND AUGUST 2020

July 3, 2020 (Expansion draft day)
HC Lev Prague picks:
#1 G Roman Will (Chelyabinsk)
#2 LD Lukáš Krejčík (Jokerit)
#3 LD Michal Čajkovský (Dynamo Moscow)
#4 C Lukáš Sedlák (Chelyabinsk)
#5 LW Lukáš Radil (Spartak Moscow)
#6 RW Brooks Macek (Avtomobilist)

Following the draft, Lev signs RD Jan Rutta (1 yr, $670k), LW Marek Kvapil (1 yr, $275k) and RD Vladimír Roth (1 yr, $93k) off of free agency.

July 5, 2020
Only a few days after being cut by the Pittsburgh Penguins, C Radim Zohorna signs with Lev (1 yr, $120k). The club also picks up a veteran of nearly 200 NHL games in RW Tom Kühnhackl (1 yr, $670k).

July 8, 2020
Prague signs G Vladislav Habal and G David Ovsjannikov (both 2 yr, $80k). Habal will be the back up goaltender to Will, while the 23-year-old Ovsjannikov will spend most of his time down in Kadaň.

July 10, 2020
Lev begins sourcing players from the Czech leagues. Promising 19-year-old D Daniel Poizl (2 yr, $80k) transfers to Prague from Litoměřice (CL), while Rangers prospect LW Dominik Lakatoš (2 yr, $120k) arrives from Vítkovice (ELH).

July 11, 2020
Lev once again makes its presence known in free agency, picking up another promising forward with NHL experience. RW Brendan Perlini agrees to a 1 yr, $120k contract. In addition, the club picks up RD Aaron Irving (1 yr, $120k) from Litvínov (ELH).

July 12, 2020
Prague makes its arguably biggest signing of the summer, giving 23-year-old RD Ethan Bear a 2 yr, $120k deal. The former Oilers fifth round draft pick is expected to play a key role in Lev's defense.

July 14, 2020
The roster starts to crystalize, as C Petr Holík (1 yr, $190k) transfers to Prague from Kometa Brno (ELH). Holík put up over a point per game during his last two seasons in the Czech top league, having previously played 10 games with KHL's Cherepovets.

July 18, 2020
Lev massively shakes up its goaltending, as it signs G Šimon Hrubec (1 yr, $150k) almost immediately after he is released by Avangard. Omsk has instead decided to go with Sharychenkov, whom they picked up from CSKA. Will is now expected to evenly split time in net with Hrubec, while Habal will temporarily be loaned out to Slovan Bratislava of the Slovak Tipos Extraliga, where he spent the previous season. Ovsjannikov is sent down to Kadaň.

July 20, 2020
Lev makes its final big signing of the summer, picking up NHL veteran LW Vladimír Sobotka (1 yr, $645k) from Sparta Prague (ELH). Sobotka, 33, has spent the last season in Buffalo.

July 21, 2020
Prague signs its very first Russian player in LD Rinat Valiev (1 yr, $120k), who has previously played for AHL's Stockton Heat.

July 31 - August 11, 2020
Lev picks up several players in an effort to improve its depth:
LW David Kvetoň (FA; 1 yr, $80k)
C Kryštof Hrabík (FA; 1 yr, $80k)
LD Jan Mlčák (Litoměřice; 2 yr, $80k)
RW Miroslav Forman (Sparta Prague; 1 yr, $120k)
RW Martin Kohout (Karlovy Vary; 1 yr, $105k)
LD Jakub Stehlík (Znojmo; 1 yr, $80k)
C Martin Hanzl (Litvínov; 1 yr, $110k)

[vtmx]

LEV WINS FIRST PRESEASON GAME, MAKES ROSTER MOVES
September 21, 2020

On Sunday night, the KHL returned to the Tipsport arena for the first time in six years. In front of 7,238 spectators, HC Lev Prague narrowly defeated Spartak Moscow 3-2.

While the final score was close, it was clear that Lev was the better team right from the start of the first period. The home team outshot its Russian opponent 43-21, with Spartak's Július Hudáček picking up a .930 SVS% in the losing effort. The Czech squad also dominated in the faceoff circle (39-23), outhit their foes (16-13) and created more takeaways (5-2).

It was an all-around successful unofficial KHL debut for the young and talented coach Filip Pešán, who is also the current bench boss of the Czech national team. His team picked up the victory after goals by Jakub Krejčík, Vladimír Sobotka and Lukáš Sedlák (GWG), while Spartak's two tallies were recorded by Artyom Fyodorov and Martin Bakoš. Lev's net was guarded by Šimon Hrubec.

One day following the victory, the Czech club continued to prepare for the start of the season by making further roster moves. D Jakub Stehlík was sent down to Kadaň, while the Lev picked up LW Adam Liška and RW Jindřich Abdul from Severstal Cherepovets in exchange for monetary compensation. Both wingers were likely to spend the season down in the Russian minors if they continued with their fomer club, and will now instead try to make it onto Lev's 25-man roster.

Lastly, prior to the start of Sunday's game, Vladimír Sobotka was named the captain of the team. His assistants will be Ethan Bear and Tom Kühnhackl.

[vtmx]

Originally Posted by Alessandro

Can't wait to see how this goes.
Too bad that we can't edit affiliations in the KHL, by the way.

Yeah, it sucks. If I could do that, I would've officially partnered up with Kadaň and probably would've also made Sparta's junior teams my affiates as well, so that I'd have somewhere to sent my younger players. Oh well, I guess the database wouldn't be able to handle that, unfortunately.

[vtmx]

PRESEASON SHOWS PROMISE, LEV WINS SIX OF SEVEN
September 30, 2020

In many fans' minds, the question "Does Lev have enough to compete?" must be slowly but surely getting replaced with "Does Lev have enough to win it all?". The newest addition to the KHL proved that it does not plan on merely hanging around in the competition, but it wants to be a serious contender for the top prize -- the Gagarin Cup. Throughout the preseason, it squared off with some of the best teams in the league, and came out on top six out of seven times.

Prague beat Spartak, Yaroslavl, Minsk, Novosibirsk and finished their successful journey off with back-to-back wins against Ufa, leaving the two games with a combined score of 9-2. The only opponent Lev couldn't succeed against was Avtomobilist, which emerged victorious 4-3 from their close match up back on Sept. 23.

Who was the preseason MVP? Well, it isn't easy to say. Both Šimon Hrubec and Roman Will had great performances, splitting the time between the pipes relatively evenly and recording SVS%s of .926 and .930, respectively. Lukáš Sedlák scored six goals and added two more assists in seven games played, while Jindřich Abdul, who appeared in only five, recorded six points for three goals and the same number of passes. Jakub Krejčík also had six, while Aaron Irving and Petr Holík finished with five.

Lev will start its first season back among the Eastern European hockey elite with three home games, meeting Kazan (Oct. 5), Omsk (Oct. 6) and Vityaz (Oct. 8). After that, it will travel to its first away fixture in Yaroslavl on Oct. 10, before returning back to the Czech Republic. It will more than likely have to kick the year off without Brendan Perlini and Ethan Bear in its line up, due to the injuries both players suffered during the preseason. Perlini is out with a strained oblique for the next 1-2 weeks, while Bear is still healing after a groin strain. He should be ready within a few days.

For a final bit of news, Lev has loaned RW Miroslav Forman and RW Martin Kohout to Sparta Prague and Karlovy Vary, respectively. C Kryštof Hrabík will start the season in Kadaň.

[vtmx]

STRONG FIRST PERIOD BRINGS LEV ITS FIRST VICTORY (Boxscore)
October 4, 2020

AK Bars Kazan 2 @ HC Lev Prague 5

Scoring and Penalties

1st | KZN | 01:40 | Mikael Wikstrand - 2 min., hooking
1st | LEV | 04:23 | Jakub Krejčík (1, ES) (Aaron Irving (1), Jindřich Abdul (1)) - 0:1
1st | LEV | 05:45 | Lukáš Sedlák - 2 min., hooking
1st | LEV | 10:54 | Adam Liška (1, ES) (Jan Rutta (1)) - 0:2
1st | KZN | 12:31 | Artyom Lukoyanov - 2 min., goalie interference
1st | LEV | 13:52 | Petr Holík (1, PP) (Dominik Lakatoš (1), Brooks Macek (1)) - 0:3
1st | LEV | 14:12 | Radim Zohorna - 2 min., hooking

2nd | LEV | 07:38 | Adam Liška (2, ES) (Aaron Irving (2), Brooks Macek (2)) - 0:4
2nd | KZN | 11:29 | Harri Pesonen - 2 min., holding
2nd | LEV | 18:36 | Radim Zohorna - 2 min., hick sticking

3rd | LEV | 00:46 | Rinat Valiev - 2 min., tripping
3rd | KZN | 12:14 | Patrice Cormier (1, ES) (Kirill Petrov (1), Roman Lyumbinov (1) - 1:4
3rd | LEV | 12:45 | Petr Holík (2, ES) (Jakub Krejčík (1)) - 1:5
3rd | KZN | 15:25 | Alexander Burmistrov (1, ES) (Harri Pesonen (1), Jegor Jakovlev (1) - 2:5
3rd | LEV | 16:43 | Lukáš Sedlák - 2 min., hooking

Stats
Shots: AKB 42, LEV 26 | PIM: AKB 6, LEV 10 | Hits: AKB 10, LEV 14 | GA: AKB 1, LEV 4 | TA: AKB 10, LEV 4 | FOW: AKB 25, LEV 31

Line-ups (Czech format)

Kazan: Bilyalov (Akhtyamov) - Wikstrand, Yarullin, Yakovlev, Khenkel, Pedan, Yudin, Lyamkin, Fazylzyanov - Pesonen, Da Costa, Lukoyanov (A) - Lyubimov (A), Cormier, Petrov - Zaripov (C), Burmistrov, Dawes - Tikhonov, Fisenko, Voronkov.

Prague: Will (Hrubec) - Čajkovský, Bear (A), Krejčík, Irving, Valiev, Rutta, Mlčák, Roth - Sobotka (C), Sedlák, Macek - Radil, Holík, Kühnhackl (A) - Liška, Zohorna R., Abdul - Lakatoš, Hanzl M., Květoň.

(Author's note: from this point onwards, I'm just going to be making monthly summaries in order to not spam the thread so much. I just wanted to have the boxscore of my very first game written down.)

[vtmx]

LEV ON TOP IN WEST AFTER FIRST MONTH
November 1, 2020

Last night's narrow 0-1 loss to the Dynamo Moscow at the VTB Arena did little to affect Lev's position in the Western Conference standings, as the club finished its first month back in the KHL in the top spot. Prague's record through the first 14 games is 10-3-1, with both Vityaz and Dinamo Riga trailing closely behind. Safe to say it has been a surprising season thus far.

Over in the east, Yekaterinburg is shaping up to be the team to beat this year, as the Bill Peters led squad suffered only three loses in October, all of them coming in OT. Ufa, Omsk and Kazan are also performing well, while other favorites like St. Petersburg or Jokerit in the west are still trying to get a foothold in the new season.

October's players of the month were Avtomobilist's G Jakub Kovář (9 GP, SVS% .953, GAA 1,42) and RW Anatoly Golyshev (14 GP, 10 G, 8 A). Lev's Roman Will had the same SVS% as Kovář, although he started in one less game and his GAA ended up being slightly worse. Šimon Hrubec has also had a solid month (6 GP, SVS% .934, GAA 1,98), although it is becoming clear that he will likely spent the season as a back up rather than evenly splitting time in net with Will.

Lev's offense was lead by C Petr Holík (4 G, 9 A) and RW Brooks Macek (7 G, 4 A), with C Lukáš Sedlák, LW Lukáš Radil and LW Dominik Lakatoš also being instrumental in the team's success. RD Ethan Bear leads the both the team and the league in assists, recording 13 through the month. He has, however, not scored yet.

[Alessandro]

Nice pickups from the expansion draft. It helps that the KHL teams only can have five imports in their rosters, so there is a lot of talent up for grabs in the start.
That loss to Neftekhimik, however...

[vtmx]

Originally Posted by Alessandro

Nice pickups from the expansion draft. It helps that the KHL teams only can have five imports in their rosters, so there is a lot of talent up for grabs in the start.
That loss to Neftekhimik, however...

Yeah, that was a bit embarrasing, not gonna lie, haha.

[vtmx]

CZECH KARJALA ROSTER INCLUDES RUTTA, KREJČÍK
November 7, 2020

Lev Prague will have to make adjustments to their roster for their upcoming games against Vityaz (Nov. 9) and Kazan (Nov. 10), as they will be missing two key players from their defense. Both Jakub Krejčík and Jan Rutta will be representing the Czech Republic at the upcoming Karjala Cup in Helsinki. The club has therefore decided to call up Jakub Stehlík from Kadaň, where he recorded 9 pts (3 G, 6 A) in 16 starts, and helped Trhači to an eleventh spot in the eighteen-team Czech second-tier league.

The team is also still missing backup goaltender Šimon Hrubec, who is still recovering after straining his foot in practice a week ago. Ethan Bear and Vladimír Sobotka are dealing with minor injuries as well, however, they should be able to start in next week's games.

Full team Czech Republic roster

Goalies: Jakub Kovář (Avtomobilist), Alexander Salák (Riga), Dominik Furch (Minsk).

Defense: Michal Jordán (Khabarovsk), Jakub Krejčík (Lev), Ladislav Šmíd (Liberec, ELH), Jan Kolář (Pardubice, ELH), Ondřej Němec (Kometa Brno, ELH), Jan Rutta (Lev), Michal Ševc (Ml. Boleslav, ELH), David Nosek (Zlín, ELH).

Forwards: Jiří Sekáč (Omsk), Michal Birner (Liberec, ELH), Dmitrij Jaškin (Dyn. Moscow), Martin Zaťovič (Kometa Brno, ELH), Roman Červenka (Rapperswil, NLA), Tomáš Zohorna (Khabarovsk), Tomáš Plekanec (Kladno, CL), Jiří Novotný (Ambri-Piotta, NLA), Jaromír Jágr (Kladno, CL), Michal Gulaš (Plzeň, ELH), Michal Řepík (Sparta Prague, ELH), Tomáš Hyka (Chelyabinsk, KHL).

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MACEK AND ČAJKOVSKÝ DEPART FOR DEUTSCHLAND CUP
November 10, 2020

Rutta and Krejčík will not be the only ones missing KHL action due to national team duty. Brooks Macek and Michal Čajkovský will be representing Germany and Slovakia, respectively, at the upcoming Deutschland Cup. 28-year-old RW Macek has recorded 13 pts in 18 games on the Lev roster, while LD Čajkovský has three assist under his belt in the same amount of starts.

In response, Prague has called up RW Miroslav Forman from Sparta Prague and LW David Květoň from Třinec. With only seven eligible defensemen in the roster, one of the club's forwards will have to step in. It is not yet known who Pešán will pick to replace the absentee blueliners.

[vtmx]

LEV BATTLES THROUGH INJURIES, NAT'L TEAM CALL-UPS
December 1, 2020

After a strong first month back in the KHL, Lev faced many difficult moments throughout November. Despite battling a slew of injuries and missing a number of key players from its roster at various points during the month, Prague was able to stay near the top of its division, its record currently being a decent 17-9-1. Currently, the newest club in the competition is third in the west behind Dynamo Moscow and Severstal Cerepovets, and shares its position with Jokerit, as both clubs have amassed 35 pts so far.

A decent number of Lev's loses came due to the club's periodic offensive struggles, as it hasn't been able to score more than three goals in a single game for over a month at this point. However, the team's defense stepped up and was able to steal a good chunk of games, recording two shutouts during November.

The decreased quality of performance led to the first changes on Lev's coaching staff, as Roman Vopat was removed from the position of offensive coach and was replaced by Canadian Wendel Clark. Vopat is still a part of Prague's bench, however, he no longer has a specific role assigned.

The roster also experienced minor mixups. G Vladislav Habal was sold to ELH's Liberec on November 20, appearing in just one game for Lev and recording a SVS% of .885. Prior to being traded, he spent most of the season so far in Slovakia, where he started in 7 games for Slovan Bratislava (SVS% .890, GAA 3,11).

LW Dominik Lakatoš has been on injured reserve since Nov. 14th, after hyperextending his knee in a game against Chelyabinsk, and is expected to be back before Christmas. LD Michal Čajkovský is unfortunately out for the rest of the season due to a ruptured disc, and the club has began searching for his replacement. The 28-year-old blueliner played 23 games for Lev, recording 4 assists in the process.

LW Adam Liška and C Martin Hanzl are expected to miss the upcoming games against Dynamo Moscow (Dec. 1) and Sochi (Dec. 2).

[PhilHell37]

Cool reports, keep them coming!

In one of my saves in fhm6 I also had some fun bringing back Lev Praha, however as a NHL Expansion team in 2031 or so.

Also totally agree that more customization options in the European leagues would make his game much more interesting ��

[vtmx]

Originally Posted by PhilHell37

Cool reports, keep them coming!

In one of my saves in fhm6 I also had some fun bringing back Lev Praha, however as a NHL Expansion team in 2031 or so.

Also totally agree that more customization options in the European leagues would make his game much more interesting ��

Thank you so much! I do hockey journalism in Czech as a part time thing and covid has unfortunately cut my workload by a lot, so I thought this would be a fun way to keep my creative juices flowing in the mean time.

And yeah, more customization would sure be cool! I'm sure we're gonna see more of it in the future, the way custom games were expanded this year is great!