HC Košice general manager Juraj Bakoš has been busy this off-season. Despite the fact his club won the Slovak Extraliga championship last season, he wants to make it even stronger -- not only to defend the title, but also to compete in a stiff Group A in the Champions Hockey League.

by Dávid Švec

A lot of teams that are in the new Champions Hockey League are trying to improve their rosters to compete against Europe's best. One of those is Košice, who made the news this week with four new player signings: Forwards Milan Kolena, Adam Lapšanský, Václav Stupka and defenceman Adam Jánošík.

"Both forwards are young players and their age and talents are a perfect match for our team," general manager Juraj Bakoš said about the first two of the group. "I believe they will keep on developing their skills in Košice and strive to achieve their peak performance with the team."

But Bakoš started assembling his team for the 2014/15 season months ago, and he answered some questions about that earlier.

How has the Košice roster changed since the end of last season, when you won the Slovak Extraliga?

We signed a quality Czech defenceman in Radek Philipp as well as Adam Drgon and forward Marek Zagrapan. We would also like to find one more goalie and maybe also another defenceman and another forward (both taken care of in the recent signings). However, Alexander Hylak will still remain our starting goalie for sure. We have to expand our squad since we’re going to play more competitions and more games. Plus, there will be some travelling as well. We wanted to keep most of our players from last season’s team, which we handled well. However, Tomáš Marcinko got some offers after the Worlds and most likely is going to leave Košice. Goalie Rastislav Staňa has already left to Sparta Prague and there's still a question mark about Marek Svatoš.

Looking ahead to the Champions Hockey League, what are your team's goals?

Our priority is to represent Slovakia well and with dignity, but it doesn’t mean to lose with dignity. We want to defeat even the strong teams. We’ll see in August what squads will our opponents have. It’s too soon to guess our final position. We want to entertain our fans. The CHL is a great project. The KHL has been expanding and now Europe is starting to balance this trend.

Speaking of your opponents, you'll face some strong ones in the group stage.

I wanted some strong and attractive opponents for us to confront and we got Oulu, Köln and Liberec. I’m satisfied with that. As I watched the Draw, I think all groups are more-or-less equally attractive. I think the strongest one in our group is Oulu.

As for Liberec, how do you feel about playing against a Czech club?

We play some games against Czech teams every summer and usually the games are close. We’re obviously looking foward to the Liberec games, but also Köln as well, because they're a good team and have lots of Canadian players. We don’t have to talk about Oulu’s quality. I believe all of Slovakia will support us in those games.

The participation itself in the CHL will mean some higher expenses for the the club. How will Košice manage that?

Those expenses won’t be so extremely high. I believe that our results will bring something back to us and that it’ll help us while negotiating with possible partners. It won’t be easy, but I believe we can succeed.

And how will the fans in Košice react?

We don’t know yet. It’s clear that our fans here in Košice are among the best in Slovakia. I believe that our top-class opponents will attract them to the stands, maybe even some people outside Košice. We will certainly do everything possible to sell out Steel Arena.

Finally, what effect will Košice’s participation in the CHL have on the Slovakian Extraliga?

We’ll see about that. Our league is good, there are lots of difficult games in it and that’s why we need to expand our squad. I hope the the Extraliga will profit from the CHL. Every national league is good and through winning the title you can get into the CHL, which could better motivate the teams and increase the level. We’ll wait and see how the sponsors and partners see this, because our league needs more funding. I believe it will be positive for all of us.