I watched most of the U17 5 Nations tournament and some thoughts on the team.
Standouts:
Lukas Dostal: Calm, confident. He was always among the best Czech players, oddly enough he played in all four games. Stopped numerous breakaways, 2v1 breakaways, high scoring chances. Key player in the 00s.
Zack Malik: In short, played I expected Dajcar to play. Reliable in his own end, can support the play in offensive zone. Wasn't afraid to go deep in the net, that's also how he scored the GWG against Russia. It blows my mind he only made the team because of Bernath's injury/illness. He was nominated just as a reserve.
Jakub Lauko: His point totals may look very dissapointing, but he definitely deserved to do better. Had numerous scoring chances, a lot of them caused by his high speed (He is really fast) or some nice dangle, but got always stopped by a goalie.
Good:
Michal Kvasnica: He reminds me of a slightly less skilled Safin. Strong and accurate wrist shot (I don't recall a single slap shot or one timer by him) decent puck skills and fluid skater. Strong around the boards.
Frantisek Klejna: Shame he is so undersized. He plays much bigger than he is, Czech team made like two or three good huge hits the whole tournament and all were made by Klejna. Great on both sides of the ice, very good puck skills.
Adam Gajarsky: Same as Klejna, plays bigger than he is. He is like a bulldog out there, giving everything in every shift and never giving up on a puck battle. Very good scoring abilities, showed nice hands in a shootout against Sweden (Didn't score though). He was noticable in a PK too (Which kinda goes hand in hand with the fact he is like a bulldog out there)
Jan Dluhos: Similiar to Klejna, but more offensive. Showed very good hands, wasn't afraid to try a deke (Which did cause a terrible giveaway though), sometimes he looked more like a forward than defenseman. (In a good way)
Matej Pekar: I had no expectations for him really, but he looked very good. Great skater, pretty skilled and decent size too. I thought he looked better each game
Dissapointments:
Tomas Dajcar: I may have had way too high expectations, but I didn't really notice him the whole tournament. Sometimes that's a good thing with defensemen... I expected him to have much greater impact on both sides of ice though.
Zdenek Sedlak: Excited to finally see him, I came away dissapointed. Never really got to use his shot, which should be one of his major assets, deked into opposition which usually resulted in puck loss and overall he looked disinterested out there.