Bigger, better, stronger – ÖEHV looks back on a successful 2022

Just a few weeks after the New Year, on 1 February 2022, Bernhard Friedrich took up the position of Managing Director of ÖEHV. The marketing expert, who himself played ice hockey for many years and was part of the national youth team born in 1976, is responsible for the Federation's commercial, financial and organisational affairs.

A few weeks later, following the exclusion of Russia and Belarus from all IIHF competitions due to the war of aggression against Ukraine, the IIHF decided to promote Austria to the Top Division.

The opportunity was seized in May, when Austria earned their first point in the second game against the USA and, on 17 May 2022, celebrated their first-ever win over the Czech Republic in Austrian ice hockey history. Despite another point against Latvia, everything still came down to the decisive game against Great Britain. After falling behind 0:2 and 1:3, Thomas Raffl & Co. stepped up in the final period, won 5:3 and secured their thoroughly deserved place in the Top Division!

Austria ultimately finished in 11th place, while Peter Schneider was delighted to rank 4th in the scoring standings after the preliminary round.

Head Coach Roger Bader thus achieved the feat of staying in the Top Division for the second time, after 2018 in Denmark. In June, the contract of the head coach, who has been in office since 2016, was extended by a further two years. He will continue to hold the dual role of Head Coach and Men's Sporting Director.

Last November, Austria made a successful debut at the Deutschland-Cup, beating Slovakia 3:2 in overtime in the opening game, losing 0:3 to Germany and ultimately finishing 2nd after a 3:1 win over Denmark.

U20 back in Canada

In the summer, the U20 national team returned to Canada following the cancellation of the U20 World Championship 2022 at the end of December 2021. In the rescheduled tournament, Austria came very close to earning a point in their final group game against Switzerland, but ultimately lost narrowly 2:3. In the autumn, Kirk Furey took over the team as U20 Head Coach. This evening, Austria will take on Germany at the U20 World Championship 2023 in pursuit of their first win at a U20 World Championship and the associated place in the quarter-finals, which would also secure their place in the Top Division.

Scandinavian takes over women's national team / Para national team back on the World Championship stage

Both the women's national team and the Para national team have recently appointed new Head Coaches. Swede Alexander Bröms is currently on the ice for the first time in his new role as women's Head Coach, while Lucas Herrnegger led the Para national team at the World Championship Group C. After initially suffering three defeats against France, Great Britain and Kazakhstan, the team left Bangkok with a good feeling thanks to their 5:0 win over hosts Thailand.

Gold for U18 women

At the beginning of September, the U18 women's national team delivered an almost perfect home World Championship. In Radenthein, the team coached by Head Coach Mario Bellina lost to South Korea 2:3 after overtime in the opening game, before securing gold and promotion to Division IA with victories over Poland (4:0), Chinese Taipei (10:1) and Denmark (2:1).

Zoey Hobitsch was named the tournament's best player, Karolina Hengelmüller best defenceman.

Sponsorship, mobility and digitalisation

All matches at the U18 World Championship in Radenthein were streamed live on LIVE.eishockey.at. It was the baptism of fire for the new OTT platform of the ÖEHV, which was set up in cooperation with Morawa Digital and implemented in record time. Since then, all matches from leagues organised by the ÖEHV, national team matches not shown on free-to-air television, and tournaments have been streamed live. For selected matches, such as the current appearances of the U20 at the World Championship in Canada, the former ORF commentator Michael Berger has been recruited.

The cooperation between the ÖEHV and Morawa Digital gives clubs not only new sources of revenue, but also unprecedented opportunities in terms of managing and optimising training, game analysis, statistics, generating content for their own digital channels and much more. To implement this project, up to 100 ice rinks and ice surfaces have been and are being equipped with AI cameras.

The gaming platform of Österreichische Lotterien, win2day, significantly expanded its sports sponsorship last spring. As part of this, a multi-year partnership was concluded. Since then, win2day has featured on the jerseys of the Para, women's and men's national teams, as well as in board advertising and, naturally, on the ÖEHV's online channels.

Since 01.01.2023, the ÖEHV has also been a member of the Play Fair Code. In future, ÖEHV athletes will be made aware of match-fixing and betting fraud through training courses and presentations.

With the acquisition of Auto Eisner by Opel Beyschlag also took on the role of official mobility partner of the Austrian Ice Hockey Federation. The successful partnership was renewed at the beginning of July 2022 and extended by a further year last summer. Opel Beyschlag will therefore continue to provide the ÖEHV vehicle fleet and its logo will feature on the men's national team jerseys.

Advanced discussions are under way with new potential sponsors. The field of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, is also set to be explored in the coming year.

New league agreement, reforms and the return of all youth leagues

With the new squad regulation, the training cost compensation system, the return of the youth leagues and many other measures, the ÖEHV Executive Committee is leading Austrian ice hockey into the future.

2022 was marked by change and reform. The ÖEHV Executive Committee was highly active over the past year, dealing with countless issues. First, the youth leagues were brought back under the ÖEHV umbrella and, since the start of the new season, have once again been organised and managed centrally.

With the "new squad regulation", the Executive Committee delivered on a promise made when it took office. It newly regulates the number of domestic players who must be listed on the game sheet from this season onwards. Twelve players eligible for selection to the Austrian national team must be listed, at least two of whom must be in the U24 age group. The regulation is to be evaluated every two years, with the aim of further increasing the number of domestic players.

Under the ÖEHV plans, at least 96 Austrians will therefore feature in each round of the win2day ICE Hockey League. That is 24 more than were previously mandatory. This measure is intended to create greater depth for the national team, increase competition for a place in the national team and enable absences to be better compensated for in future.

Also coming into force this season was the "training cost compensation system". The new system, known as AKES for short, was developed jointly with representatives of the ÖEHV, a representative of the regional associations, and representatives of the ICE Hockey League and ALPS Hockey League. In the long term, it is intended to further professionalise youth development and bring more children into ice hockey.

AKES is designed to ensure that clubs which provide high-quality training to young players are compensated if those players later receive a professional contract. It is a growing, not a rigid system, which can be expanded and adapted at any time.

In countries with a similar model, such as Germany and Switzerland, it has been shown that the number of children could be increased and youth development professionalised in general. Austria is among the first nations to introduce such a system.

ÖEHV expands team

In the summer, Peter Schweda and Carina Jakits joined the federation. 31-year-old Peter Schweda was himself a professional ice hockey player and also made a name for himself with the Vienna Capitals as a coach and head of youth development. He has been working for the Austrian Ice Hockey Federation since 1 July, where he is responsible for competition operations. This covers all leagues organised by the ÖEHV. 

Carina Jakits also joined the federation from the Vienna Capitals. Until her parental leave, she was responsible for the entire events area, overseeing the organisation of matchdays as well as external events. Within the ÖEHV, she works in various administrative areas and is involved in the organisation and delivery of home games for the Austrian national teams.

Within the ÖEHV, Florian Mühlstein was appointed the new Head of Youth Training & Development in the autumn. In the 32-year-old, the ÖEHV has not only secured a former professional and national team player, but also someone already experienced in youth development. Mühlstein had already been working as Regional Development Manager in Carinthia since April 2019, giving him an understanding of the tasks and objectives involved in the foundations of Austrian ice hockey.

The four-time Austrian champion supports the regional development managers in their work, chairs monthly meetings with them and, in consultation and coordination with ÖEHV Men's Sporting Director Roger Bader, is responsible for the content-related implementation of the A, B and C coaching licences. He also looks after recruitment and the talent identification pyramid, and develops concepts to promote young Austrian players. In addition, Florian Mühlstein continues to serve as Head Coach of the U16 national team.

The contract with press spokesperson Markus Riedlmayer and his team, Christoph Vetchy, Georg Deflorian and Florian Kott, was also extended in the summer. The 40-year-old took over the association's media responsibilities on 1 October 2021.

For 2023, preparations are in place at every level to continue reforming Austrian ice hockey and make it fit for the future.