Pilsen confirmed the signings of two stars of the Slovak extra league | Hokej.cz

Pilsen put an official stamp on the expected arrivals of defender Igor Merežek and forward Oliver Archambault, whose names have been mentioned with the Indians for several months. Both agreed on a one-year contract in the west of Bohemia.

Thirty-one-year-old Canadian Oliver Archambault comes to the Czech Republic as the Canadian scoring champion of the Slovak extra league: he scored 59 points (14+45) in 45 games. He also collected almost a point per game in the subsequent playoff, in which Spišská Nová Ves advanced to the historic final.

“We have watched Oliver for a long time and we think he is a player with great individual abilities,” says general manager Martin Straka on the website hcplzen.cz. we believe he will be a reinforcement.”

From the same team, Plzeň also took 26-year-old Igor Merežek – he dominated the league’s productivity among defenders for a change. To the 48 points (10+38) from the regular part, he added nine more in the elimination part.

The native of Kharkiv is the captain of the Ukrainian national team, and he has also proven his qualities in previous seasons: for example, in the 2022/2023 season, he was the second most productive defender in the Danish league.

He also impresses with his physical proportions: he is 194 centimeters tall, weighs a meter and also holds his hockey stick on the right. “In addition, he also has experience in Canadian hockey, where he worked for a long time in the junior WHL. He had good numbers in Slovakia, so we believe that he will carry that over to Pilsen as well,” Straka wishes.

Archambault and Merežek are the third and fourth confirmed reinforcements for Pilsen, respectively: in addition to them, the Indians have already confirmed the signatures of forwards Jakub Klepiš (Kladno) and Christoph Lalancet (Hradec Králové).

The key question for dismissal remains the goalkeeper position, because Samuel Hlavaj went for an unexpected overseas challenge and the second goalkeeper Milan Klouček (new to Česká Budějovice) is also not continuing.

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