Schwartz is heading back to Prague

[Hordichuk_24]

I'm hearing that he's going back to Prague because of his girlfriend (who isn't 18 yet so can't come to NA) and general homesickness.

He had her out here a couple times during the season but she didn't seem like she was very comfortable here.

Either way, a combination of Schwarz missing girlfriend and family and the fact that he felt like the people in Vancouver hated him (probably mostly due to the people in my section screaming at him each game) finally gave him enough motivation to go back home. One of the St. Louis scouts that has watched Schwarz most of the season wasn't too happy about this at all. Rightfully so.

 

[jcoldwell]

Dubnyk > Schwarz...

I totally agree with you on this one Cerebral. And all the people were bashing Edmonton after they drafted Dubnyk as they were saying they should have picked Schwarz.

Schwarz, I don't think he will have a successful career. I have a bad feeling about him.

 

[czechhockeyfan]

Such as........

Podlesak, Blatny, Koreis, Ustrnul, Cutta, Kurka, Kristek, Vagner, Taticek, Kreps, Novak, Nedorost, Sivek, Kanko, Huml.

Of course, in some cases injuries deteriorated their development, some players still could be possibly regular NHL-ers but this player´s list looks pretty badly from my standpoint.

 

[RorschachWJK]

Who here would want to go half way across the world away from your family and friends to make less money?

This is exactly what I did, by accepting a 2-year position here at the UofT I knew absolutely nobody on the continent before coming here and I knew that the salary will be lower than in Finland. However, I'm going back to Finland when the funding ends in August .

 

[slumpy43]

Let's not be too hard on the kid. He left his country to go play hockey alone, by himself, without any family and friends. A country that speaks another language, that have different customs, mentalities and way of living. Adaptation must be incredibly hard without a supporting cast. I remember reading an interview with Lehtonen, stating how hard it was for him to adapt even for the support of a few countrymen on his team that gave him a hand to adapt. Schwarz was by himself... Going back to Europe is probably the best decision for his development. Look at how well he did in the WJC. The guy was in his element. The rest will come with more maturity and he's still a great prospect.

 

[cj]

It really depends. It could be great, it could be disastrous and on so many different levels. It could be bad if Schwarz goes over there and doesn't get the playing time he would in North America and loses valuable development time. It could be bad if he does get the time and plays awesome and just decides that he doesn't have a need to come back to North America and continues being a star in the Czech League. But it could be awesome if he plays well there and really progresses and comes back in two years as a much stronger prospect.

It's much similar to Kiril Koltsov heading back to Europe.

Who knows how it's going to turn out. But it definitely does give a slight amount of concern for sure.

No, it's really not similar at all actually.

For one, Koltsov left midseason with virtually no warning. He also left an ideal situation. He was on the first pairing, getting #1 pp time, in a system that allowed him to be creative with the puck and was on (at the time) one of the best teams in the AHL. When he left he had 17 points in 28 games and was making notable improvements in his own zone. I don't know what his final point total from Russia was but last I heard it wasn't very impressive. In his case, absence did not make the heart grow fonder as the Moose didn't skip a beat and Bieska surpassed Koltsov on the Canucks depth chart. There is absolutely no doubt he made a bad decision.

Marek Schwarz on the other hand gave the Giants plenty of warning which allowed them to get a quality replacement. He had a very difficult season in Vancouver. It wasn't just adjusting to a new country and a new league, he also had to deal with a bunch of NHL media types who'd probably never covered a junior game in their lives but suddenly found themselves with nothing to do and so turned their attention to the Giants. The increased media attention was good for ticket sales, but not for a young kid who was struggling to acclimate himself. He took way too much abuse from a bunch of chumps who forgot they were dealing with teenagers, not million dollar superstars.

It's probably a good idea for him to go back to Europe and get his confidence back. He still has quite a few years left to develop. I wouldn't be worried if I were a Blues fan.

 

[FacelessButcher]

Podlesak, Blatny, Koreis, Ustrnul, Cutta, Kurka, Kristek, Vagner, Taticek, Kreps, Novak, Nedorost, Sivek, Kanko, Huml.

Of course, in some cases injuries deteriorated their development, some players still could be possibly regular NHL-ers but this player´s list looks pretty badly from my standpoint.

I don't know or watch Czech prospects as much as I'm sure you do, but I have been under the impression that the sooner a player comes over from Europe to NA the more likely he will make the transition to a more NA style game, which typicaly leads to a smoother transition to the NHL.

From my Oiler perspective our 1999 - 2003 European born player selections in the first three rounds (for brevity's sake) are as follows:

Jani Rita, Alexei Semenov, Tony Salmelainen, Alexei Mikhnov, Alexander Lyubimov, Ales Hemsky, Jessi Niinimaki, and Mishail Joukov.

Of these 8 selections, the 2 most promising ones are by far Alexei Semenov and Ales Hemsky, both of which were already playing in North America when we selected them. The other 6 who weren't playing in North America when drafted have a much cloudier future within the organization.

Edit: I realize two other conclusions can be taken from this-
A: Oiler's european scouting straight up sucks
B: It's far too small a sample size to draw any meaningful conclusions

Regardless I wanted to demonstrate why I have slight doubts about your claims of a general trend given recent Oiler drafting experience.

 

[Schlep Rock]

He plays one year in Vancouver and he's being talked about like he's a bust? Incredible.

Marek will be back and the Blues have themselves a talented goaltender. Goalies take longer to develop anyway but since he's a 1st rounder he's expected to walk in and be the best goalie in the world? Patience... he'll be fine.

It's worth nothing, Sindel & Schwarz have the same agent and Sindel's dad is the Sparta coach.

 

[Letang fan 58]

The Giant's new goalie (Dustin Slade) is probably an improvement over Marek Schwarz at the CHL lever. Mark Schwarz is going to turn into a Roman Cechmanek clone. He makes great saves one minute and then lets in a horrible goal. He is one of the most frustrating goalies to watch (ever more than Cloutier).

Giants new goalie Dustin Slade is a headcase.....he has superb skills and would likely have been drafted in the top 5-6 rounds if it wasnt for his 2 cent head.

However he has the potential to be an allstar in the dub.

 

[Blane Youngblood]

Giants new goalie Dustin Slade is a headcase.....he has superb skills and would likely have been drafted in the top 5-6 rounds if it wasnt for his 2 cent head.

However he has the potential to be an allstar in the dub.

I don't think a kid chosing to stay close to home is a headcase. He played at a reasonable level of hockey last year (Surrey Eagles) and performed well.

Any ideas who the Giants might selected with the 1st round import pick they just traded for? Also, has anyone else heard that Bertram might actually join the Giants (I've only heard one person say this so I'm looking for confirmation).

 

[mackdogs*]

Sounds like he just needs to get laid. Where's all the pucks in this city??

 

[kmad]

Sounds like he just needs to get laid. Where's all the pucks in this city??

SURREY

 

[Letang fan 58]

I don't think a kid chosing to stay close to home is a headcase. He played at a reasonable level of hockey last year (Surrey Eagles) and performed well.

Any ideas who the Giants might selected with the 1st round import pick they just traded for? Also, has anyone else heard that Bertram might actually join the Giants (I've only heard one person say this so I'm looking for confirmation).

If you actually think that he made the decision to stay close to home last year all the power to you.....however the truth is that he was kicked off of Regina's team after flipping out for about the 3rd or 4th time....very skilled goalie to bad about the 2 cent head.