“We had a great season, both sportingly and economically.“, said Jacques Reboh, the president of the Grenoble hockey club, the Brûleurs de Loups. It must be said that the 2021-2022 season ended with an eighth title of champion of France, after a victory against the Dukes of Angers (4-1) in the Magnus League final. Grenoble also qualified for the Champions League, which will start in September. The only downside: the Coupe de France, where the Brûleurs de Loups were eliminated in the round of 16 against Nice (4-3).
Little change in the team
Encouraged by these fine performances, the team’s manager, Jean-François Dufour, announces “little change“, and young players “which increase from year to year.“Note all the same, two departures from the attackers: Malo Ville and Jani Tuppurainen, who come in addition to the three other departures announced earlier in the season (Julien Baylacq, Christophe Tartari and Sébastien Bisaillon).
For the rest, the Brûleurs de Loups retain their two coaches, Jyrki Aho and Ari-Pekka Siekkinen, their captain, Joël Champagne, and their two goalkeepers, Jakub Stepanek and Raphaël Garnier, as well as 12 other players (Damien Fleury, Sacha Treille, Aurélien Dair, Julien Munoz, Nicolas Deschamps, Adel Koudri, Maxim Lamarche, Pierre Crinon, Kyle Hardy, Lucien Onno, Janne Jalasvaara and Jere Rouhiainen).
– Antonin Kermen
To complete the team, the Brûleurs de Loups have already recruited three players, and no strangers: Alexandre Pascal, Timothé Quattone and Flavian Dair have cut their teeth in Grenoble, and have already made a few replacements among Grenoble hockey players. In particular Flavian Dair, member of the hope team, but promoted to the first team during the final stages of the Magnus League. ” We are still missing two or three players to completeconcludes Jean-François Dufour, and it is not excluded that we recruit other players later in the season.“
Objective: French Cup and Champions League
Indeed, a larger team is part of a new strategy that the Burners of Wolves will put in place for this season. They hope to do a better performance in the Coupe de France. ” We often lose the Coupe de France, because around November-December, it’s a slow period for the players. They are out of breath. We really asked ourselves a lot of questions about these performances in recent seasons“, develops the general manager. The solution: recruit more players, for more turnover in the team.
Grenoble hockey players are also preparing to face the Swedes of Götberg, the Germans of Berlin and the Czechs of Mountfield, during the group stage of the Champions League in September. Here again, the team has some ambitions: ” We know we’re not going to be favourites, but we’re going to try at least to win our home games and if we could win the pool, that would be a feat. Everything will be played on the ice.“
On the ice, precisely, where the management team is preparing a new scenography for the Polesud ice rink: 12 projectors will broadcast images before the match, for a three-minute show.