Sterzing confirms five players

The 22 year old Daniel Erlacher (born 1989) is a trained winger and is entering his fourth season with the Broncos first team. At 185 cm and 93 kg, one of the physically strongest of Wipptal's homegrown players, he only found space in the team sporadically in Serie A and, in addition to his 18 short Serie A appearances, he was also assigned to the HC Meran Junior farm team in Serie A29 for 2 games on loan, where he scored two goals and provided five assists. For "Erle" in this year's team in Series A2, due to some not yet confirmed but still likely departures in the wild horses' storm, there will be more space and regular appearances and, above all, significant ice time. IN Serie A2, Erlacher played 98 games with Vipiteno and scored 10 points (2 goals and 8 assists).

Tobias Kofler , center born in 1992, 170 cm tall and 73 kg, who grew up with the Strabulls Rosenheim, has also made further great progress in Serie A after a convincing debut season in Serie A2. “Tube” managed two goals and two assists, although he was largely used in the fourth and only partially in the third block. Now coach Oly Hicks believes he can play for a place in the first two forward lines.

As in previous years, "Tube" was a fixture in the Italian U20 national team this season, with whom he reached third place in Group B at the First Division World Championship in Tychy (POL). In five games he recorded nine shots on goal, four penalty minutes and a plus/minus balance of +1, and, although he remained without any scorer points, was voted the "Azzurrini"'s best player by the coaches of all teams. Kofler demonstrated his professional attitude and leadership qualities even after the Broncos' elimination in the Serie A playout, when he enthusiastically joined the U20 team, with which he became Italian champions and scored a goal in each of the four semi-final and final games contributed a total of five assists to the title win.

The 22 year old Alex Lanz (93 kg spread over 187 cm) is now in his sixth season with the Broncos first team. In addition to 36 games in Serie A (one goal and 16 penalty minutes), the tall all-rounder also made 25 appearances in the HC Meran Junior farm team, in which he was able to show his often overlooked offensive qualities, scoring five goals and providing three assists. But it wasn't just this that "Mr. Reliable" once again demonstrated his already admirable versatility as a center and wing, in some preseason games Coach Hicks even used him as a defender, where he was once again anything but out of place. This season will probably also be an opportunity for Alex Lanz to prove his abilities and reap the just rewards for his loyalty to the white and blue jersey of the Broncos. In Serie A2, Lanz played 167 games and scored 35 points (20 goals and 15 assists),

Philipp Pircher , the only defender to have extended his contract with the Wildpferden so far, was probably one of the biggest surprises in the Wipptal team last Serie A season. While the 24-year-old was previously known above all as the epitome of the perfect team player, the defensive defender surprised several times with excellent performances in Serie A, something that few would have expected of him. In 51 championship games he had two assists. In addition, "Piepe" is an extremely valuable player for the locker room due to his positive attitude and unconditional reliability, and coach Oly Hicks now sees the opportunity to repay him for the support he has received over the last few years: "Piepe has developed great and I think he is ready to take the next step. This season he will help lead the way, take responsibility on the ice and also play a larger role in the team." In the A2 series, Pircher played 196 matches with Brixen, Turin and Vipiteno (4 goals and 10 assists).

In alphabetical order the last in this quintet is Christian Sottsas . The winger, born in 1987, is one of the crowd's favorites in the Weihenstephan Arena, but in the last two seasons he has had increasing problems converting the many scoring opportunities that he has created through his hard work and speed. While he scored a total of 2009 goals in 10 games in 21/41 and was even the Wild Horses' playoff top scorer with nine goals in ten games, he only managed 98 goals in 15 games in the last two seasons. However, “Sotts” made a virtue of his necessity and, together with Florian Wieser and changing partners in the second wing position, formed a defensive block that was often praised by experts. The Broncos were the envy of many Serie A teams for this third line, especially since, despite the mainly defensive tasks, it was always extremely dangerous in the attacking third and scored some crucial goals.

"Sotts is an important player for our team, even if we're not able to score goals at the moment. Of course, it's always good when as many players as possible score as many goals as possible, but Christian is ready to fulfill defensive tasks when it comes to offense "It's not going well, and that's at least as important. The fact that Oly used its third line without any reservations against the best attack lines in Serie A speaks for itself, there's no need to comment on that anymore," praises sporting director Egon Gschnitzer. However, the bundle of energy from Brixen wants to finally get back to its offensive glory days and there will probably be the best conditions for that this year.

Oly Hicks compares the situation with that of a few years ago, when the Broncos' home-grown squad, which was still very young at the time, was incorporated into the senior team: "Overall, our team has a few opportunities this year that we wouldn't have expected. Many of ours Players will have the opportunity to develop new roles and greater responsibility. How they achieve this development depends primarily on their willingness to take on this challenge, but also on how well the coaching team and the club support this development. This year "Some of the boys will grow from their role from excellent support players into key positions and take on leadership roles in the team. I am very excited about this development and will continue to support them with all my strength." Egon Gschnitzer adds: "In addition, some youth players will have the chance to play in the first team sooner than expected. However, everyone has to work for this chance, everyone has to show us that they are really willing to be in the Broncos' senior team to play and everyone has to be 100 percent ready as soon as the opportunity arises. Age will not play a role, but in addition to the necessary talent, hard work, commitment and will will be the only criteria for a role."

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Sterzing confirms five players

After the signings of Gunnar Braito and Stefan Ramoser, WSV Vipiteno Broncos Weihenstephan has also extended the contracts with strikers Daniel Erlacher, Tobias Kofler, Alex Lanz and Christian Sottsas as well as with defender Philipp Pircher.

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