Coralville, Iowa- The Iowa Heartlanders announced the arrival of two new defensemen on August 12th, Lincoln Erne, a 25-year-old from Blaine, Minnesota, and Zeteny Hadobas, a 21-year-old Hungarian international.
Erne played four years at Canisius University before making the step to the ECHL for the 2023-24 season, where he played 23 games for the Newfoundland Growlers before being traded to the Idaho Steelheads, where he played 27 more games before wrapping up his season with the Jacksonville Icemen. Erne will be looking for stability and a chance to make an impact on the back line as he returns to the Midwest for the first time since high school. Lincoln will also have the privilege of sharing the ice with Ryan Miotto again, where Miotto got the assist on Erne’s only college goal, as you can see below:
Zeteny Hadobas will join the Iowa Heartlanders in his first-ever North American hockey contract. At age 21, Hadobas has already recorded 50 games for Hungary’s youth national teams and 37 nods for the senior national team, including 33 assists for his nation. Zeteny has mostly played his professional career in Sweden up to this point, where he has recorded high assist tallies across youth teams. However, he has yet to get consistent playing time for a team or league since he has gotten chances in elite-level professional leagues. The Hungarian youngster has shown the ability to have an instant impact and hopes the ECHL will be the first senior professional league where he can make that happen.
Here is just one of many magnificent plays Hadobas made during his time in Sweden, grabbing the puck off a faceoff and taking it all the way to the back of the net:
As of August 12th, the Heartlanders have 17 players on their roster and are now up to six defensemen. As Derek Damon fills out his squad, fans can expect to see another goaltender signing and a few more skaters before looking up to the Iowa and Minnesota Wild for reinforcements.
Here is how the roster looks right now:
Goaltenders (1): William Rousseau
Defensemen (6): Jules Boscq, Lincoln Erne, Zeteny Hadobas, Louka Henault, Bogdans Hodass, Chris Lipe
Forwards (10): Parker AuCoin, Nico Blachman, Will Calverley, Zach Dubinsky, Adam Goodsir, Ryan Miotto, Yuki Miura, Jack O’Brien, Dakota Raabe, Jonny Sorenson
