Czech Republic: Czech prospects thread

[Swipes]

So he wanted to buy his son a top 9 position and now he's talking about fair play. what



Now 4 points (2+2) in 6 games played, +8 rating. He is getting me really interested to see him play.
Overall, I am really digging those 99/00 years, still quite far away so a lot can change, but names like Zadina, Necas, Zabransky, Skarek and more make me excited and hopeful.

If you are talking about comparisons (stat-wise) Zabransky is better than Zboril was at that age. I also checked Zelingr and he has very Masin-like ones.

Czechexpert is our usual source for data on these guys but he's been dormant lately.

I do remember that he said he didn't like '99-said it was weak. Based upon what we're seeng so far it doesn't appear to be so bad.

 

[czechcanadian]

So he wanted to buy his son a top 9 position and now he's talking about fair play. what



Now 4 points (2+2) in 6 games played, +8 rating. He is getting me really interested to see him play.
Overall, I am really digging those 99/00 years, still quite far away so a lot can change, but names like Zadina, Necas, Zabransky, Skarek and more make me excited and hopeful.

If you are talking about comparisons (stat-wise) Zabransky is better than Zboril was at that age. I also checked Zelingr and he has very Masin-like ones.

Uhhh... Me too!!! Just look at the defensemen coming up for 2017/18 drafts.

Jakub Sirota, Matyas Zelingr, Jakub Galvas, David Kvasnicka, Filip Kral, Libor Zabransky.

All of them have NHL draft statistics. Easily... And check out Filip Krals stats actually... Holy man...

And then the offense? No problem.

Martin Necas, Ostap Safin, Jan Kern, Martin Kaut, Filip Zadina, Jachym Kondelik, Filip Chytil, Radim Toman, Jan Jenik, Michal Kvasnica, Jakub Lauko

Thats pretty darn good (by Czech standards anyway) for 2 draft years. And most of them are statistically really impressive. Not just on the fence.

 

[Wooren]

Czechexpert is our usual source for data on these guys but he's been dormant lately.

I do remember that he said he didn't like '99-said it was weak. Based upon what we're seeng so far it doesn't appear to be so bad.

Yeah I remember reading it there when I was going through old posts. He said 98 is okay (Which is true) and 99 is weak. 99 Looks promising though imo.

Uhhh... Me too!!! Just look at the defensemen coming up for 2017/18 drafts.

Jakub Sirota, Matyas Zelingr, Jakub Galvas, David Kvasnicka, Filip Kral, Libor Zabransky.

All of them have NHL draft statistics. Easily... And check out Filip Krals stats actually... Holy man...

And then the offense? No problem.

Martin Necas, Ostap Safin, Jan Kern, Martin Kaut, Filip Zadina, Jachym Kondelik, Filip Chytil, Radim Toman, Jan Jenik, Michal Kvasnica, Jakub Lauko

Thats pretty darn good (by Czech standards anyway) for 2 draft years. And most of them are statistically really impressive. Not just on the fence.

Yep. It really seems like the defensemen program was improved. Thanks the godness for that. (Re-using Zidlicky as the only real offensive threat won't make it LOL)

You forgot to mention goalies. I don't know much about any 00 one, but 99's Skarek and Vomacka are really good. On the U17 tournament I was more impressed by Vomacka, but Skarek on the other hand has real good statistics to back him up.

 

[Swipes]

Reichel junior played his first game in the E-liga today.

http://isport.blesk.cz/clanek/hokej...-z-tribuny-to-jsem-si-nemohl-nechat-ujit.html

His dad claims he has a better shot than him ^^

I wonder if he'll be better than Ruzicka junior

 

[Wooren]

Reichel junior played his first game in the E-liga today.

http://isport.blesk.cz/clanek/hokej...-z-tribuny-to-jsem-si-nemohl-nechat-ujit.html

His dad claims he has a better shot than him ^^

I wonder if he'll be better than Ruzicka junior

Good stuff. Well yeah, hopefully he ends up being better than average Extraliga player... (NHLer possibly )

It's also worth noting Jakub Galvas played a debut

 

[herbst20]

Picture of Vladar and Nemecek from the game Saturday night

Chicago vs Cedar Rapids (USHL)

https://twitter.com/USHL/status/688778433762054144

 

[czechmate]

When I recently looked up the stats of Filip Kral (D) another high scoring defensemen caught my eye, Jiri Weintritt (D). Both players are the top scoring defensemen in their age group. Does anyone know more about him/them? Draft prospect(s)?

Just check out both of their stats & dimensions, quite similar imho.

Pos. GP G A P +/- PIM YoB H S

- Jiří Weintritt SD Vsetín D 34 13 22 35 6 32 1998 - 182cm - L
- Filip Král SD Kometa Brno D 34 10 22 32 17 30 1999 - 176cm - L


Overall:

Im glad we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel what concerns D prospects. Unfortunately Zidla is approaching his 40s already and the others are not quite the quality defensemen in terms of scoring and overall reliability.

I hope we can get a couple of good defensemen drafted in the near future, otherwise I don't see any way we can step up our game on national level.

We have an arguably decent forward depth and hopefully when the time comes a great keeper (Mrazek). But we need to get that blue line stacked with quality defensemen, if possible with additional PP-capabilites.

At least this is how I see things - Agree/Disagree? ;-)

 

[Czechexpert]

Reichel junior played his first game in the E-liga today.

http://isport.blesk.cz/clanek/hokej...-z-tribuny-to-jsem-si-nemohl-nechat-ujit.html

His dad claims he has a better shot than him ^^

I wonder if he'll be better than Ruzicka junior

Hard to say. Both are soft. Both have solid shot. Ruzicka has better hockey sense and more skills. Reichel is more competitive, plays with much more effort.
Neither is NHL prospect

 

[Czechexpert]

Uhhh... Me too!!! Just look at the defensemen coming up for 2017/18 drafts.

Jakub Sirota, Matyas Zelingr, Jakub Galvas, David Kvasnicka, Filip Kral, Libor Zabransky.

All of them have NHL draft statistics. Easily... And check out Filip Krals stats actually... Holy man...

Thats pretty darn good (by Czech standards anyway) for 2 draft years. And most of them are statistically really impressive. Not just on the fence.

Forget Galvas and Kvasnicka, no chance. Zabransky really looked out of place in junior Extraleague but he is very young. Sirota is long term project but has chance. Zelinger is ?. Haven´t seen Kral yet.
Czech leagues are so weak nowadays that stats could be very misleading.
99´group is okay, 00 looks very weak.

 

[czechcanadian]

Forget Galvas and Kvasnicka, no chance. Zabransky really looked out of place in junior Extraleague but he is very young. Sirota is long term project but has chance. Zelinger is ?. Haven´t seen Kral yet.
Czech leagues are so weak nowadays that stats could be very misleading.
99´group is okay, 00 looks very weak.

Yeah the leagues aren't that strong but they never were. If you compare the stats of current Czech defensive prospects (Vala, Hajek, Budik, Hronek) with those of the guys I mentioned. Statistically, it's very comparable. If not more in favour of the 2017/18 draft eligible guys.
So based on that you gotta think it's getting better.

 

[czechcanadian]

When I recently looked up the stats of Filip Kral (D) another high scoring defensemen caught my eye, Jiri Weintritt (D). Both players are the top scoring defensemen in their age group. Does anyone know more about him/them? Draft prospect(s)?

Just check out both of their stats & dimensions, quite similar imho.

Pos. GP G A P +/- PIM YoB H S

- Jiří Weintritt SD Vsetín D 34 13 22 35 6 32 1998 - 182cm - L
- Filip Král SD Kometa Brno D 34 10 22 32 17 30 1999 - 176cm - L


Overall:

Im glad we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel what concerns D prospects. Unfortunately Zidla is approaching his 40s already and the others are not quite the quality defensemen in terms of scoring and overall reliability.

I hope we can get a couple of good defensemen drafted in the near future, otherwise I don't see any way we can step up our game on national level.

We have an arguably decent forward depth and hopefully when the time comes a great keeper (Mrazek). But we need to get that blue line stacked with quality defensemen, if possible with additional PP-capabilites.

At least this is how I see things - Agree/Disagree? ;-)

Yeah but Weintritt is a 2016 draft eligible and Kral is a 2018...
Weintritt is 17 in a U-18 league. Not too impressive really. Kral on the other hand.. Wow

 

[Swipes]

Yeah the leagues aren't that strong but they never were. If you compare the stats of current Czech defensive prospects (Vala, Hajek, Budik, Hronek) with those of the guys I mentioned. Statistically, it's very comparable. If not more in favour of the 2017/18 draft eligible guys.
So based on that you gotta think it's getting better.

I wish I had time to look at stats. But I'm glad you guys do though, it saves me time

And welcome back Czechexpert. I was missing your pessimism. I think we were all getting a little too optimistic here haha

And our E-liga is way worse now than it was when I was younger (mid 90's)

 

[Czechexpert]

Yeah the leagues aren't that strong but they never were. If you compare the stats of current Czech defensive prospects (Vala, Hajek, Budik, Hronek) with those of the guys I mentioned. Statistically, it's very comparable. If not more in favour of the 2017/18 draft eligible guys.
So based on that you gotta think it's getting better.

I tend to believe my eyes more than stats...
Budik and Hajek were the best D(barring Zboril) on Czech U18 national team as UA last season. Vala dominated in some games of Czech juniors last season. Hronek has been able to play regular shifts in Extraleague recently.
No one among 99´ ,who I saw, is anywhere close to these guys.

It´s not getting better for sure.

 

[czechcanadian]

I wish I had time to look at stats. But I'm glad you guys do though, it saves me time

And welcome back Czechexpert. I was missing your pessimism. I think we were all getting a little too optimistic here haha

And our E-liga is way worse now than it was when I was younger (mid 90's)

Nothing wrong with a little optimism. Don't get me wrong, Czech expert is usually right but not always
A good example being Pavel Zacha.. Aha.
But I've seen some of these young guys play at the World U-17 Challenge. Along with Wooren. Those kids were damn good. They even beat Canada White along the way, who ended up destroying Russia 6-2 in the final...
So there is definitely potential there.

 

[Wooren]

Nothing wrong with a little optimism. Don't get me wrong, Czech expert is usually right but not always
A good example being Pavel Zacha.. Aha.
But I've seen some of these young guys play at the World U-17 Challenge. Along with Wooren. Those kids were damn good. They even beat Canada White along the way, who ended up destroying Russia 6-2 in the final...
So there is definitely potential there.

Yep, I can second this. I was actually impressed by our team to be honest after reading people say 99 generation is weak.

They could rely on both goalies, who were very good. Defense wasn't afraid to go deep in the off. zone which resulted in creating some pretty good chances. Forward group was dangerous and could play with anyone a somewhat even match.

It's worth a mention that the Russia which got destroyed, destroyed us earlier in the playoffs . Though I think both this and the match against USA were much closer than the scores tell, especially the Russia one.

Czechexpert watches those players in E-liga, unlike me who is just a stat watcher ( I watch national team matches of any age category when they are streamed/televised, but a lot of those junior matches aren't)
But I just don't buy that pessimism. If that U17 tournament wasn't just some fluke and the players actually play the way the did there, I don't think the 99 is weak, it could actually turn out to be pretty good. At least by Czech standard.

 

[Swipes]

Nothing wrong with a little optimism. Don't get me wrong, Czech expert is usually right but not always
A good example being Pavel Zacha.. Aha.
But I've seen some of these young guys play at the World U-17 Challenge. Along with Wooren. Those kids were damn good. They even beat Canada White along the way, who ended up destroying Russia 6-2 in the final...
So there is definitely potential there.

That's true.

But I kinda agree with him on Zacha, he hasn't really impressed me recently (I know he was injured). He got a lot of hate from Czech fans after the WJC....

 

[Swipes]

But I just don't buy that pessimism. If that U17 tournament wasn't just some fluke and the players actually play the way the did there, I don't think the 99 is weak, it could actually turn out to be pretty good. At least by Czech standard.

Our two best generations in 10 years ('96 and '97) have failed to medal at the WJC. We're 11 years into a medal drought. If the next generations are not as good as those two (and by all accounts they are not for forwards) what reason is there to be optimistic?

Perhaps we'll manage it with a '98 D and '97/'99 forwards. But I'm not gonna hold my breath. :/

 

[Wooren]

He got a lot of hate from Czech fans after the WJC....

Yeah ''fans''. People waiting for him to fail there and when he did (Not scoring a goal and knocked out in quaterfinal) they started to put the whole failure on his shoulders. I have even seen comments like ''Our worst forward'' ''Should have taken some Extraliga player instead of him''. Those aren't fans, those are haters who know a jack**** about ice hockey. Why in world would you leave out 6th pick of a very strong draft? Also, none of this hate would happen if his name wasn't Zacha. Those people hate his father so they spit on his son. Pathetic if you ask me.

 

[Rexor]

If his name wasn't Zacha, no one would even notice him on the ice. I would have taken him too if I were the Czech coach but frankly, he's done nothing at the WJC.

The top NHL prospects over the last 10 years or so were really standing out when playing for the Czech Republic at the WJC. Voráček, Frolík, Hertl, JaÅ¡kin, Pastrňák... one could easily spot their talent and potential. Zacha has been just meh so far with the Czechs, even though you would be expecting him to dominate in this age group just because of his size. But he is what he is - meh. In the best case scenario, he can eventually find his niche in the NHL as a 3rd line (maybe a 2nd line complimentary) two-way physical winger but he clearly lacks top-end offensive skills.

 

[Wooren]

If his name wasn't Zacha, no one would even notice him on the ice. I would have taken him too if I were the Czech coach but frankly, he's done nothing at the WJC.

The top NHL prospects over the last 10 years or so were really standing out when playing for the Czech Republic at the WJC. Voráček, Frolík, Hertl, JaÅ¡kin, Pastrňák... one could easily spot their talent and potential. Zacha has been just meh so far with the Czechs, even though you would be expecting him to dominate in this age group just because of his size. But he is what he is - meh. In the best case scenario, he can eventually find his niche in the NHL as a 3rd line (maybe a 2nd line complimentary) two-way physical winger but he clearly lacks top-end offensive skills.

He was playing injured there... Though coach still took him, because even an injured Zacha > Random dude from czech league. If he ends up being 3rd liner, which I doubt, he will be considered as a huge dissapointment. Also, speaking of top-end off. skills, he has an elite accurate shot that's NHL ready.

 

[Rexor]

He was playing injured there... Though coach still took him, because even an injured Zacha > Random dude from czech league. If he ends up being 3rd liner, which I doubt, he will be considered as a huge dissapointment. Also, speaking of top-end off. skills, he has an elite accurate shot that's NHL ready.

If he's really that good he should be standing out even despite some minor injury. Maybe not exactly dominating games but take over a few shifts, score or set up a goal here and there, or at the very least display a little bit of that physical game he's been so praised for... but he showed absolutely nothing noticeable. I've been following him since he was 15, I frequent his father's blog from time to time and so far his career has been a strange mix of hype, hopes and excuses. There's always plenty of talk about how great he'll become and a similar amount of rationalizing why he's been unable to deliver yet. With Zacha, it's always high expectations for tomorrow and inventive excuses for yesterday. Once he's injured, once the coach is bad, once the hockey association or the club management is incompetent and corrupt, once the "environment" is bad (people are biased against him or his family, the training facilities aren't good enough or there's too little time for practising) and so on and so forth, there's never a shortage of excuses for him not producing. He can turn it over eventually but these are not good signs.

If he ends up as a 3rd liner in the NHL I won't be disappointed though many people obviously will. I think he was taken way too high in the draft. It's not 1995 any more but it seems that NA scouts are sometimes taken away by size too easily. His shot is the only elite skill that he possesses but Frk had a better shot than him and where is he now.

 

[Swipes]

Yeah ''fans''. People waiting for him to fail there and when he did (Not scoring a goal and knocked out in quaterfinal) they started to put the whole failure on his shoulders. I have even seen comments like ''Our worst forward'' ''Should have taken some Extraliga player instead of him''. Those aren't fans, those are haters who know a jack**** about ice hockey. Why in world would you leave out 6th pick of a very strong draft? Also, none of this hate would happen if his name wasn't Zacha. Those people hate his father so they spit on his son. Pathetic if you ask me.

Haha yeah tell me about it. It's so hard to post any form of criticism on facebook these days without having "fans" criticize you and tell you you're an idiot and don't know anything.


Take our czech commentators for example. It's got to the point that I can't stand Zaruba anymore, he's so annoying and actually knows almost nothing. Pospisil seems like the only knowledgeable guy.

But back to the topic at hand. I have to side with Rexor on this one (to some extent). Zacha is a good player but still has a lot to prove. I personally don't think he's going to be anything special, but I'll be only happy if I'm wrong. Cesky hokej to potrebuje!

 

[Swipes]

Speaking of which, it's really good to have more of us Czech hockey fans discussing stuff on here, it was quite dormant back in the early days when I joined (2010).

So thanks guys!

 

[czechcanadian]

If he's really that good he should be standing out even despite some minor injury. Maybe not exactly dominating games but take over a few shifts, score or set up a goal here and there, or at the very least display a little bit of that physical game he's been so praised for... but he showed absolutely nothing noticeable. I've been following him since he was 15, I frequent his father's blog from time to time and so far his career has been a strange mix of hype, hopes and excuses. There's always plenty of talk about how great he'll become and a similar amount of rationalizing why he's been unable to deliver yet. With Zacha, it's always high expectations for tomorrow and inventive excuses for yesterday. Once he's injured, once the coach is bad, once the hockey association or the club management is incompetent and corrupt, once the "environment" is bad (people are biased against him or his family, the training facilities aren't good enough or there's too little time for practising) and so on and so forth, there's never a shortage of excuses for him not producing. He can turn it over eventually but these are not good signs.

If he ends up as a 3rd liner in the NHL I won't be disappointed though many people obviously will. I think he was taken way too high in the draft. It's not 1995 any more but it seems that NA scouts are sometimes taken away by size too easily. His shot is the only elite skill that he possesses but Frk had a better shot than him and where is he now.

You are very wrong my friend.. I've seen him play multiple times in person in the OHL. He's nothing short of dominant. He was 100% fighting some injury no doubt. Because he wasn't playing half of what I've seen him play before.
Are we also forgetting that he almost made the Devils team this year?? There's a reason for that. It's not just his shot. There's SO many things that he excels in. He wouldn't be drafted top 10 otherwise. Before we get too critical, wait a couple years when he's in the NHL. He's minimum gonna be a 2nd line LW.

 

[R S]

What do you guys think the chances are of players like: Najman, Kurovsky, Davidek, Karafiat, Reichel, Kousal or Kodytek choosing to come to NA whether they get drafted by an NHL team or not this summer?