@kabidjan18 I agree, they basically added AlpsHL 4th liners to a team that finished 4th out of 5 teams in Austrian amateur hockey league. Also they finished 9th out of 15 teams in EBYSL so it's not like their U20 team is not challenged enough in their league. Linz is probably threatened by import reduction in EBEL so now they trying to generate some talent over night. AlpsHL is already too big,
there is already 4 teams not able to compete with others. This makes is hard to make the league interesting.
Basically how I see it, it's EBEL showing AlpsHL who's the boss since there was some talk about AlpsHL forming an independent league. You want a better league? Join EBEL. But, what will happen if Italian teams leave and Olimpija leaves to EBEL? Austrian teams will end up playing with farm teams (and poor Jesenice). No player development there or appeal for local fans.