The Bratislava Capitals were a professional
Slovak ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
club based in
Bratislava
Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
,
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
. They were established as HC Bratislava in 2015 and played five seasons in the Slovak hockey system before switching to the Austrian
ICE Hockey League in 2020. After two seasons in the ICE Hockey League the club ceased operations in 2022.
Early years
HC Bratislava was established in 2015 in response to the lack of a Bratislava senior team in Slovak competitions. In its first season in the third-tier
second league, it finished 12th out of 16 teams. In the 2016–17 season, the club found a stable home in
Vladimír Dzurilla Arena in
Ružinov
Ružinov (, , ) is a borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, located in the Bratislava II district. It is the city's second most populated borough, housing over 80,000 inhabitants and its Nivy neighbourhood is the place of the emerging ne ...
. The club stabilized, established itself in the second hockey league and finished fourth out of 20 teams. In 2019, ahead of the 2019–20 season, the club went through a complete rebranding, changing its name to the Bratislava Capitals, as well as making changes to their logo, uniforms, head coach and playing squad. There was also a change to their home arena, with the club starting to play its home games at
Ondrej Nepela Arena Ondrej is a Slovak male given name, equivalent to Andrew. Notable people with the name include:
* Ondrej Duda (born 1994), Slovak football player
* Ondrej Otčenáš (born 1987), Slovak ice hockey player
* Ondrej Nepela (1951–1989), Slovak figure ...
.
Austrian League
After the
2019–20 season, the Capitals were accepted to play in the Austrian-based bet-at-home ICE Hockey League (formerly the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga) on 24 April 2020 beginning in the 2020–21 season.
On October 30, 2021, player
Boris Sádecký collapsed during a game, reportedly due to cardiac arrest, and died three days later. On November 5, the team's general manager
Dušan Pašek was found dead from suicide. Following the incidents, the club suspended its season after 14 games, but announced its return for the 2022–23 season in May 2022. In spite of their plans to return, the club confirmed in July 2022 that they were terminating their activities.
NHL alumni
*
Stanislav Gron (2016–2018)
*
Eric Selleck (2019–2020)
*
Matt Climie (2019–2020)
*
Sergei Kostitsyn (2020–2021)
*
Jared Coreau (2020–2021)
*
Brett Carson (2020–2021)
*
Nikolay Zherdev (2021–2022)
References
External links
Official website (Slovak)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:HC Bratislava
Sport in Bratislava
Bratislava Capitals
2015 establishments in Slovakia
2022 disestablishments in Slovakia