Iserlohn Roosters

Iserlohn Roosters
City Iserlohn, Germany
League Deutsche Eishockey Liga
Founded 1959
Home arena Eissporthalle Iserlohn
Colors Red, White
         
General manager Karsten Mende
Head coach Jari Pasanen
Captain Mike York
Website iserlohn-roosters.de

The Iserlohn Roosters are a professional ice hockey team based in Iserlohn, North-Rhine-Westphalia. They are members of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga since 2000 and play their home games at the Eissporthalle Iserlohn which is also known as Eissporthalle am Seilersee. Playing fifteen years in the DEL the team made the playoffs three times. The Roosters are widely regarded for their fans and having one of the best atmospheres at home games in Europe despite having just a capacity for 4967 spectators. The club caused much controversy in 1987 when under Heinz Weifenbach a US$900,000 advertising deal was signed for former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's The Green Book. The book is widely acknowledged as having been inspired by Mao Zedong's The Little Red Book.

History

The history of ice hockey in Iserlohn began in the neighbouring town of Hemer. In a district of Hemer called Deilinghofen were deployed Canadian soldiers. They came to the town after the end of the Korean War in 1953 and soon built an arena - first without a roof. The teenagers in Deilinhofen were interested in this strange kind of sport and wanted to play it, too. They played on streets or frozen ponds and were allowed to play in the arena in 1957 for the first time. Recognizing the joy of the teenagers they got first changing coaches, later with Charles McCuaig a steady trainer. After a long preparation time the first game against a Canadian youth team from Soest was on 8 March 1958 in front of 120 people. Deilinghofen played well, but lost 2-6. The equipment was borrowed by the soldiers. After that game, the matches were more steady and with more bystanders, so the arena had to get a roof in 1958.

EC Deilinghofen (1959–1980)

On 28 February 1959 EC Deilinghofen was founded. In 1959 a team from Deilinghofen started in a junior league and reached the second place. A year later they took part in the German championship and finished fifth. In the second season 1960–61 they came first in North Rhine-Westphalia, and were the second best team in the country.

Between 1962 and 1964 they were champions of the north of Germany, but they lost the play offs against the champions of the south and so missed promotion, but were eventually promoted.

In 1971 the Canadian soldiers were disengaged and the new British soldiers were not interested in ice hockey, so the team had to search for a new home. Local politicians wanted to have an arena in Iserlohn. After the agreement of Iserlohn's town council the Eissporthalle am Seilersee was built

In the 1976–77 season Deilinghofen finished two places behind Kaufbeuren in the new Zweite Bundesliga. But Kaufbeuren waived the promotion and the ECD got the chance to play in Germany's top hockey league for the first time.

The 1987 ECD Iserlohn shirt with Gaddafi's Green Book advertisement

ECD Iserlohn (1980–1987)

In 1980 the club was renamed ECD Iserlohn, because the arena was there for years. In the following season the team was relegated for the first time in its history. Two years later it moved up again. And the next years were the best and most successful seasons in the club's history. In 1986 the ECD reached the semi-final in the playoffs with stars like Jaroslav Pouzar and Martti Jarkko. But these players also cost a lot. The president Heinz Weifenbach looked for help in Libya, where Muammar al-Gaddafi agreed to pay money if the team advertised his "Green Book".[1] On 4 December 1987 they did. A few days later the ECD Iserlohn was strapped.

ECD Sauerland (1988–1994)

The next season the ECD Sauerland was founded. They started playing in the Oberliga, although Weifenbach wanted to begin in the Bundesliga. The club had the same, big financial problems as its predecessors. The 1991–92 season was a catastrophe, so the fans were frightened to miss the license. The ECD got the license, but went bankrupt a few days after the end of season.

ECD Sauerland Iserlohn Penguins (1994)

Only one day later, on 9 April 1994, the ECD Sauerland Iserlohn Penguins was founded, but the pewee players didn't contract in, so the club hadn't a chance to survive.

Iserlohner EC (1994–2000)

The Iserlohner EC was founded on 20 April in the same year. The new committee wanted to avoid financial adventures. After one season the team moved up to the second best league. The following two years were more difficult, but new players during the season revived the club. In 1997 a new coach came to Iserlohn: Greg Poss. After three successful years, the club could move up again, because they bought the license of Starbulls Rosenheim. The arena in Deilinghofen was torn down in 1999, 40 years after the foundation of the ECD. Many people from Deilinghofen protested against this.

Iserlohn Roosters (since 2000)

Iserlohner EC joined the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in 2000, and adopted the name Iserlohn Roosters. IEC founded a GmbH for the team which administrates the finances and the organisation. The GmbH was named the Iserlohn Roosters GmbH. All junior teams were still under the control of the IEC. The Roosters continually had the lowest budget of all DEL-teams and the media often referred them as an underdog. In their first two seasons the Roosters placed 15th and 12th.

In the 2002–03 season playoffs were again missed, failing just two points short, although the German champion of this year, the Krefeld Pinguine, were beaten 8-1 at the last day of play. For the next season Poss left the club and went on to coach the Nürnberg Ice Tigers, Iserlohn's named Dave Whistle as new coach but after only nine games Doug Mason was his successor. In the lockout season in 2004–05, Mike York and John-Michael Liles came to Iserlohn and helped to reach 11th place despite still the smallest budget in the league. York signed with Iserlohn after his old college friend Bryan Adams, who was the captain of the Roosters, talked to him. Brian Gionta also signed, but left without having played because his wife's pregnancy.

Twelve players left the club in the summer of 2005, but the Roosters were able to make some great activities on the transfer market, the biggest in signing former DEL-topscorer Brad Purdie and former NHL-player Mark Greig for two years. Nevertheless they got just the eleventh place again despite having the best powerplay in the league. In March 2006, Mason left Iserlohn for Kölner Haie and Geoff Ward came to Iserlohn to coach. After again finishing another season in eleventh place, Ward then left Iserlohn during the summer 2007 to be an assistant coach for the Boston Bruins of the NHL.

After defeating DEG Metro Stars 5:1 in the opening game of the season 2006-07 the Roosters had caught the first place for one week for the first time in their history. For the season 2007-08 the new coach of the Roosters was Rick Adduono. The Roosters improved the team with Norm Maracle, Bob Wren. After the fifth game they maintained a playoff rank and were able to keep it. Improved offense was due to Robert Hock and Michael Wolf starting to dominate the league as native players, breaking the dominance of North American players. Wolf was the top goal scorer and Hock became league top point scorer. The third man in their line was either Tyler Beechey, who was first signed on a try-out.contract, or Brad Tapper. Also the line with Jimmy Roy, Pat Kavanagh and Ryan Ready helped to unexpectedly reach the playoffs. But in the quarterfinals they were defeated by the Frankfurt Lions in game 7.

For the next season the Roosters signed former New York Islanders coach Steve Stirling. The team failed to continue the way they had the year before and Stirling was fired in February after the team fell out of playoff position. In the summer many players voiced critique to Stirlings and assistant coach, Ulrich Liebsch, became the new head coach. Many key players left the team. Due to the financial crisis the Roosters announce to look for young talented players and didn't focus on veterans for the 2009-10 season.

Players

Current roster

Updated September 8, 2015.[2]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
61 Germany Bassen, ChadChad Bassen C L 32 2014 Strathmore, Alberta, Canada
42 Germany Blank, BorisBoris Blank RW L 37 2014 Karaganda, Kazakh SSR
44 Canada Button, RyanRyan Button D L 24 2014 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
9 Canada Caporusso, LouieLouie Caporusso LW/C L 26 2015 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
12 United States Connolly, ChrisChris Connolly RW L 28 2014 Duluth, Minnesota, USA
2 Canada Côté, Jean-PhilippeJean-Philippe Côté D L 33 2015 Quebec, Quebec, Canada
67 Germany Friedrich, MarkoMarko Friedrich C L 24 2014 Roth, Germany
16 Canada Jaspers, JasonJason Jaspers C/LW L 34 2015 Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
19 Germany Kahle, MarcelMarcel Kahle C R 22 2012 Iserlohn, Germany
24 Austria Lange, MathiasMathias Lange G L 30 2013 Klagenfurt, Austria
20 Germany Lavallée, KevinKevin Lavallée D L 34 2014 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
17 Germany Macek, BrooksBrooks Macek C R 23 2013 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
62 Germany Orendorz, DieterDieter Orendorz D L 23 2009 Iserlohn, Germany
6 Canada Périard, MichelMichel Périard D L 36 2015 Saint-Constant, Quebec, Canada
8 Canada Petersen, NickNick Petersen RW R 26 2014 Wakefield, Quebec, Canada
34 Canada Pickard, ChetChet Pickard G L 26 2015 Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
23 Canada Raymond, BobbyBobby Raymond D L 30 2015 Lucknow, Ontario, Canada
81 Canada Ross, BradBrad Ross LW L 23 2015 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
15 Germany Shevyrin, DenisDenis Shevyrin F L 20 2015 St. Petersburg, Russia
26 Canada Sylvester, CodyCody Sylvester C L 23 2015 Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
33 Canada Teubert, ColtenColten Teubert D R 25 2013 White Rock, British Columbia, Canada
22 Canada Wruck, DylanDylan Wruck LW L 23 2014 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
78 United States York, MikeMike York (C) C R 37 2011 Waterford, Michigan, USA

Season records

Season Games WonLostTieOTLSOLPoints Goals
for 		Goals
against 		Rank Playoffs
2000–01 60 23 31 0 6 - 68 152 189 15 Did not qualify
2001–02 60 23 28 0 9 - 74 154 183 12 Did not qualify
2002–03 52 25 19 8 0 - 75 142 132 9 Did not qualify
2003–04 52 19 26 0 7 - 59 137 169 12 Did not qualify
2004–05 52 21 26 0 5 - 64 138 156 11 Did not qualify
2005–06 52 21 26 - 0 5 65 166 178 11 Did not qualify
2006–07 52 24 24 - 1 3 70 148 163 11 Did not qualify
2007–08 56 33 18 - 4 1 96 208 196 5 Lost in quarterfinals
2008–09 52 22 18 - 5 7 71 171 187 11 Did not qualify
2009–10 56 26 26 - 3 1 74 166 183 11 Did not qualify
2010–11 52 21 22 - 5 4 68 150 159 12 Did not qualify
2011–12 52 25 19 - 4 4 77 150 150 10 Lost in playoff qualifications
2012–13 52 20 29 - 2 1 59 130 167 13 Did not qualify
2013–14 52 19 22 - 2 3 74 147 149 10 Lost in quarterfinals
2014–15 52 28 17 - 4 3 86 179 150 6 Lost in quarterfinals

Individual team records

As at end of 2012–13 season.[3]

Most games played
Rank Player Games
1. Collin Danielsmeier 515
2. Michael Wolf 419
3. Christian Hommel 405
4. Robert Hock 368
5. Dimitrij Kotschnew 259
6. Mark Ardelan 242
7. Jimmy Roy 236
8. Christian Franz 215
9. Roland Verwey 213
10. Sebastian Jones 209
Most points
Rank Player Points
1. Michael Wolf 412
2. Robert Hock 390
3. Ryan Ready 162
4. Mike York 151
5. Mark Ardelan 140
6. Jimmy Roy 139
7. Bob Wren 110
8. Matt Higgins 98
9. Pat Kavanagh 92
10. Bryan Adams 91
Most goals
Rank Player Goals
1. Michael Wolf 212
2. Robert Hock 109
3. Jimmy Roy 67
4. Ryan Ready 54
5. Mike York 49
6. Pat Kavanagh 40
7. Bryan Adams 39
8. Tobias Woerle 38
9. Tomas Martinec 37
10. Multiple tied 36
Most assists
Rank Player Assists
1. Robert Hock 281
2. Michael Wolf 200
3. Ryan Ready 108
4. Mark Ardelan 106
5. Mike York 102
6. Bob Wren 76
7. Jimmy Roy 72
8. Paul Traynor 68
9. Marty Wilford 64
10. Matt Higgins 63
Most penalties in minutes
Rank Player PIM
1. Christian Hommel 659
2. Jimmy Roy 517
3. Michael Wolf 389
4. Ryan Ready 340
5. Tomas Martinec 327
6. Paul Traynor 282
7. Collin Danielsmeier 277
8. Robert Hock 252
9. Bryan Adams 251
10. Bob Wren 240
Most shutouts
Rank Player SO
1. Sebastien Caron 7
2. Jimmy Waite 6
3. Dimitrij Kotschnew 5
4. Norm Maracle 4
5. Radek Toth 3

References

  1. ↑ Serge Schmemann (18 December 1987). "Qaddafi Foiled as an Ice Hockey Patron". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  2. ↑ "Das Team der aktuellen Saison" (in German). www.iserlohn-roosters.de. Retrieved 2015-01-17.
  3. ↑ "Iserlohn Roosters All-Time roster". hockeydb.com. 2011-03-15. Retrieved 2011-03-15.

External links

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