A Look Ahead to Herlev Eagles: Pre-Season 2024

The Eagles soar into town for a pre-season double header against the Devils to help launch the highly anticipated season with gusto.

Players new, returning and known all look sharp, from Mac Carruth to Zach O’Brien and Sam Duggan to Joey Martin.

Herlev rock up in town, where a certain Guillaume Doucet knows the club very well, as their assistant coach will look to test both his own bench, as well as the one at his former club.

Naturally, fans attending would have their own eyes peeled for players they may be excited about, from the return of the Mac, to Reid Duke, Andrew MacWilliam or even Gleason Fournier.

Many will be interested to see how they gel, the lines they play in and of course, the amount of pucks that they want to litter in the opposing goalies net.

Before any of this however, just who are the Herlev Eagles?

Herlev Eagles

Herlev play from the Danish top league, for those who remember Herning Blue Fox, who are a competitive team, that just can’t quite make their leagues playoff final. They have recently collected a bronze in post season, their best finish to date.

Founded in 1968, they have been reformed a few times to the club they are today, I would compare to the likes of Dundee Stars or at least, Fife Flyers.

For those who don’t know, the Danish league is comprised of 9 teams, similar to that of Polands Katowice, with the huge difference to the EIHL being that they prioritise Danish players (homegrown) over imports.

Perennial lower end of the table finishers, their best finish was 6th two seasons ago in their Playoff Bronze year, usually finishing 7th or 8th. Pre-Covid and a league restructure due to a club going bankrupt, they struggled to make playoffs in a league similar to ours numbers wise.

A reality that could hit this league if some clubs aren’t careful enough.

The similarities in domestic set ups aside, Herlev have been a steady build in a very tight knit league where one team would dominate for a time, until the next one does, either Herning or Aalborg in recent years.

EIHL fans would find a lot of similarities to what a Danish fan would have to go through, from uncertainty, lower end table scraps to make playoffs and the ‘usual ones’ winning the main trophies.

Players from Denmark or those who have played in that league do find other routes to higher destinations, such as in the ECHL, DEL, Swedens top tiers and even as prospects to NHL clubs.

This years transactions have seen players come and go from the EIHL, such as Flyers Lajeunesse to Aalborg and Pierre-Olivier Morin to Belfast (also, from Aalborg, including Bo Hanson). Of course, we cannot leave out Mac Carruth either.

The Danish league although sharing a lot of similarities to the EIHL, does develop incredible talent, which of course should be attributed to its homegrown focused system, one for this country to further look into.

One to Watch

A key player to look out for on the Herlev side is Oliver True. Honestly.

He is coming off a great year where he put up a career best, matching his jersey number on 44 points from 47 regular season games. This is his third ML team since coming through the ranks at Rungsted, where he won the league and two Danish cups with. His latest accolade was the Bronze medal with his current team.

He hails from some Danish hockey royalty too. His cousin is Nikolaj Ehlers (Winning Jets) and his own father was a cult hero to his current club, Soren True, who was drafted in 1986 to the New York Rangers. Good company.

Expected Lines, at a push

With the type of pre-season Devils have set up along with Team GB duties, it is hard to predict who the regular starters and lines would be for the upcoming season without seeing them play yet, including across this complex schedule.

Also, they are still waiting on the arrivals of Olischefski and some guy called Riley Brandt.

My best guess would be the following;

Shinkaruk – Martin – O’Brien

MacDonald – Duke – Barrow

Mosey – Busch – Perlini

Duggan – Davies – Harewood

Fournier – MacWilliam

Donaghey – Gourley

Batch – Richardson

Bowns

Carruth