Welcome back. Today I want to take a look at Czech hockey. As of today we are riding on quite the high! Two historical events and a rare one just occurred in the last month.
The Czech club at the Spengler Cup eliminated Canada. The Czech National team eliminated Canada from the World Junior Championships in their first ever defeat of Canada in an elimination matchup. You may recall that, last year, the same Czechs lost to Canada in the final. This weekend, the Czech U18 ladies had a “Miracle on Ice” as they eliminated a heavily favoured Canada and won their first ever Silver medal!
You may note that Spengler Cups and Woman’s U18 don’t really prove anything. That is true but it is the first time in my life where we have had so much success against Canada and two of the wins are historic. Let’s get back to the NHL outlook and International outlook.
How Czechia has shown success recently
This U20 (Bronze) was our third straight semi final appearance at the World Junior Championships. That is significant as only the Czechs and Swedes can say that. One could argue that no Russia helps this. It does and doesn’t. It absolutely increases everyone’s chance of winning a medal because a strong competitor is absent. However, it doesn’t explain why the Czechs beat Canada to start last year’s tournament, then lost to them in the finals (3–2 in OT), and then eliminated them in this years quarters. Typical Czech versus Canada scores are in the 5–0 range. That gap has significantly closed. The Czechs have also eliminated the US and Swedish U20 teams in recent years. One level lower is the Hlinka Cup.
The Czechs have been to the final four of the Hlinka Cup the last two years as well. This summer they lost 3–2 (in OT again) to Canada in the final. If you are not familiar with this tournament, this is the one where Canada sends their absolute best possible roster. They win a strong majority of these.
What that means is that the Czechs are riding a few very strong age groups right now. Last years WJC’s team was the best Czech team in 20 years. It was led by an amazing D core which had Jiricek, Svozil, and Spacek doing a lot of heavy lifting. This year was meant to be a weaker team. Next year’s team should be better (in theory) than both these teams. Next year’s team in Ottawa sees Sale returning along with Hrabal in net. It also includes a very strong D core of players like Jiricek (the younger brother who is out for the season but looking to be a first rounder), Badinka (also a first-round candidate), Galvas (top 100 candidate), Fibigr (top 100 candidate), along with the already drafted Port and Dvorak. A year out, the squad has promise.
So, are the Czechs back? Is it a big five now?
No, but it’s looking like that is coming in the next few years if things pan out.
Currently the Czechs have seven or eight NHL goalies in backup or starter roles. They have David Pastrnak in Hart Trophy talks. They have Filip Hronek absolutely killing it on defence with Quinn Hughes in Vancouver. So a top-10 scoring defence and forward. It’s a great start. We also have very encouraging junior results and have had a goalie taken in ever draft (except 2016) since 2010. Three consecutive years of first rounders and this year (and next) seem likely to have a few more. The recently release mid-term NHL rankings had more Czechs than Finns on it. Arrows up!
So what is the problem?
For starters, the Czechs are not being invited to the upcoming World Cup. The NHL is only inviting Sweden, Finland, USA, and Canada in a tournament I hope flops big time! Why not the Czechs? And here lies the problem. We do not have enough NHL defencemen. We could not realistically have seven or eight defencemen at a World Cup tourney and they’ve said they only want NHL players in it.
The Czechs today are very low on defence. We have four that are doing very well for themselves. 20-year-old rookie David Jiricek is killing it and should be a very good defenceman in about two seasons. Filip Hronek has arrived and is killing it today. Radko Gudas is doing very well in Anaheim. Jan Rutta is also near 20 minutes a night in San Jose. He is a target for the Edmonton Oilers. He’s a RHD who is of a similar ability to Cody Ceci. Rutta would be inexpensive to acquire and would bolster our right side. He’s won a few cups and was always on the top pair with Victor Hedman. He’s a very good complimentary top-four player.
The rest of Czechia’s defence have flopped out in spectacular fashion this season. Promising players like Filip Kral and Jakub Galvas left the NHL and returned to Europe. First rounder Jakub Zboril is in the AHL and looks to be headed back to Europe at the end of the season. NHL vet Radim Simek cannot crack the San Jose Sharks lineup and appears to be finishing his NHL career out in the AHL. Another very promising player is Libor Hajek. He tried his best to make the NHL and ended up in the Spengler Cup this Christmas (helping his team to the finals and eliminating Canada along the way). That is a lot of mid-20s type players that all appeared to be future NHL defencemen. They all busted out in one way or another. If three of them had established themselves in the NHL, then there is a very good chance the Czechs are now back and it’s a big five again.
The forwards have also had a spectacular fall from grace this season. First-rounder Martin Kaut was also at the Spengler Cup. Filip Zadina bet on himself and I’m not sure it’s looking good. Jakub Vrana is back in the AHL. Jakub Voracek is on LTIR with concussion issues. Ondrej Kase is also out of the NHL due to concussions and is playing with his brother (David who also was drafted and didn’t make the NHL) in the Czech Extraliga. David Krejci retired officially right before the holidays. Filip Chytil may also have his career ended due to concussions and is back in Europe. These are all players that were expected to be on the National team in 2024. It’s a massive drain for a small nation to lose so many top players and first rounders. I’ll also add that Pavel Francouz (who eliminated the Oilers in a sweep against the Colorado Avalanche) is also done for the season on LTIR and probably will not be in the NHL anytime soon.
What the Czechs need to do to get back
The Czechs desperately need about three of their D prospects to become full time NHL players and the sooner the better. This list includes Svozil, Dvorak, Spacek, Adam Jiricek, David Svozil (younger brother too), Galvas, Fibigr, Port, Alscher, and Hamara. Czechs need half these guys (or others like Cech, Tichachek, or Koci) to make the NHL and stay there. Is it likely? Yes. Is it guaranteed? Absolutely not. These guys are as promising as Kral, Galvas, Hajek, and Zboril. Not one made it.
Forward wise, the Czechs will be okay for a little while. Jiri Kulich is very promising. For what it’s worth, the Oil did draft a very promising Czech prospect in Matej Blumel. He is doing much better in the AHL (just added to All-Star Game) than Matvei Petrov or Xavier Bourgault for instance. It is a shame the Oil let him walk. Filip Chytil returning to good health would be very promising for us. The goalie situation is quite strong too with Lukas Dostal looking to be a very good NHLer for years to come and several good NHL goalies playing most nights. Michal Hrabal is also very promising as a 6’6” monster.
So, it is the best of times (Junior results, draft picks, and some tippy top NHL players) and the worst of times (so many busts, not invited to World Cup, only four NHL defencemen, and so many concussion ruined careers to top Czech players). Time will tell if this Junior wave will bear fruit. I do hope, given the results and close games, that scouts start looking at our players much closer in the draft. Overage (and undrafted) players like Becher, Rymon, Melovsky, and Cibulka all absolutely belonged beside the drafted players on Team Canada/Sweden/Finland. They all went undrafted and I am hoping players like them start to get taken in later rounds. Last years draft saw a paltry six players taken. Hoping for around 12 this upcoming draft.
Which Czech players should the Oilers target
To me, the Oilers are a very good team that needs tweaks. We don’t need a homerun. We need some bargain bin pickups to solidify the roster for a hopeful playoff run. Stuart Skinner has been amazing and Olivier Rodrigue looks to be the goalie of the future. I feel that Skinner-Rodrigue can dominate the crease for a decade. Rodrigue projects to be better than Skinner and is right on track to being an NHL backup. What we need is a stop gap. An inexpensive goalie to platoon with Skinner.
There are three inexpensive Czech targets that could do this: Dan Vladar, Karla Vejmelka, and Petr Mrazek. I’ve always dreamed of Jakub Vrana in our top six but that seems unlikely despite a very cheap acquisition cost.
Photo from @czechockey on Twitter
