As exclusively revealed in this mornings Basingstoke Gazette, your GalxC Cooling Services sponsored Basingstoke Bison are excited to announce the arrival of the highly experienced Slovakian forward Marcel Balaz for the 2022/23 season.
33 year old, 6’ 2”, 92kg Balaz who was born in Trebisov Slovakia, spent the majority of his career in his home country, playing alongside a couple of names likely to be familiar to Bison fans in Erik Piatak and Stainslav Gron (ex-Manchester Phoenix) during his time in the extremely competitive Slovakian hockey leagues.
The 2018/19 season saw Marcel make the move to France, where he joined Dunkerque for a season before moving almost 500 miles down the coast to fellow France2 club Brest for 2 seasons, he was the team mate of a certain Dominik Gabaj who had a brief stay at the club during the 2019/20 season.
Last season Balaz joined Clermont in the same league, where he made 20 appearances, finishing with 16 points (9+7) and 30 penalty minutes.
Overall during his 4 seasons in France Marcel played in 77 games, contributing 47 points (27+20) whilst picking up 56 penalty minutes.
Bison Head Coach Ash Tait commented on capturing Marcel for the Herd said,
“I think Marcel is a similar type of player to Michal Klejna in that he can carry the load, sees the ice well and knows where the net is. I’m excited to see him get started”.
The player himself had this to say about signing for the Bison,
“I’m very glad to be part of the team and I’ll try to do my best performance for success and reach our goals for next season”.
