The hockey club HKM Zvolen has agreed to end cooperation with head coach Peter Mikul.
The club’s management took this step after mutual negotiations with the aim of bringing a new impetus to the team and the entire organization.
He will be replaced by Antonín Stavjaňa, who will join the team on December 29 for personal reasons.
The next extra league matches against Banská Bystrica (December 26) and Slovan Bratislava (December 28) will be led by the implementation team consisting of Garip Saliji and Janis Andersons.
Stavjaňa last led Nitra in Slovakia, with whom he won the title in the 2023/24 season. Subsequently, he worked in Prague’s Sparta.
Zvolen said goodbye to the icon
“There are decisions that are not made easily. Not because they are wrong, but because they affect people who have done an incredible amount of work in our club. And just such a moment happened today in HKM Zvolen. Such decisions are always difficult, especially in the case of a person who was always there when the club needed him.
After long talks and efforts to help the team achieve the desired results, today, together with the coach, there was an agreement on the need for a new impetus for the entire organization, so the club management agreed to end cooperation with head coach Peter Mikul.
A man whose name is forever deeply inscribed in the history of Zvolen hockey. To the coach whom Zvolen shaped and who rewarded the club with success at the highest level,” the club said on its official website.
Peter Mikula is one of the most prominent figures in the history of Zvolen hockey. His coaching career in the club began in the late 1980s with the youth categories of HKM Zvolen. In the 1995/1996 season, he became an assistant coach of the A team, where he worked for eight years.
During this period, he won a complete medal collection in the extra league with Zvolen – silver in the 1999/2000 season, the first ever championship title in the 2000/2001 season, another silver in the 2001/2002 season and bronze a year later.
The last time Peter Mikula became the head coach of Zvolen was on December 27, 2024, during the last season, and he continued in the position in the current season.
The club management stated that the current decision is related to the need to respond to the development of the season and long-term unfavorable results.
