Is it true that Brno sent Necas to the U18 rather than keeping him around for their Championship Playoff round? Saw it in the Necas thread but can't find it anywhere else.
They were forced to send him to the U18 WCH before the Extraliga final series started. He played the first two rounds. A stupid Czech Hockey Federation rule adopted last year, according to which junior players always have to be available for international games, no matter their clubs' needs.
And this is precisely my concern. What if he doesn't? In the two Kometa games I saw -- and I watched keenly for Necas and Necas alone -- he played poorly early on and spent most of the rest of the game on the bench. (And when I say "played poorly" I mean "stayed on the perimeter and made turnovers under pressure, with a few flashes of speed and skill".)
At this point in his career, he needs minutes. Maybe his performance in the playoffs has given the coach confidence to play him more, good or bad. But if I'm Hurricanes management, I would need assurances that he would get a *lot* of minutes to leave him in Brno.
Of course, if they do leave him in Brno, that means I'll get to see him again next season when I visit again.
He played a lot last year, maybe even to the point where he was a bit exhausted during January or February. I think it's generally better for a young player to be surrounded by teammates and opponents who are better than him, to play in a highly competitive and demanding environment rather than be in an inferior league where he's head and shoulders above 90 % of players, knowing that he's getting a ton of minutes no matter what and maybe to succumb somewhat to the impression that he's got nothing more to learn. Of course, it depends. CHL is better than 4th line minutes in Czech Extraliga. But again, it wouldn't make much sense to move NeÄÂas back to playing with juniors - majority of whom will never play hockey for a living - once he's already established himself in a professional league.
No serious professional team would ever give any assurances with regards to a player's ice time, an 18 year old on top of that. I don't think Oulu did in case of Aho, either. But he's been treated very well so far in Brno, no reason to think he's going to end up in coach's doghouse after two bad games. He's obviously well liked by the coach/GM.
I hope you enjoyed your visit!
Because its also about off ice culture and trustworthy. No one from NHL can be certain what happens with their young prospects in extraliga because extraliga never made clear statement what is its attitude and strategy towards young players. It heavilly depends on every individual czech manager. So if Robert Kron knows Kometa's owner and is well awared of Kometa hockey club they might let him play there for one year with no concerns. They also have to count with culture shock and language barrier. Most of the swedes and finns mostly look more ready for that step than czechs.Extraliga is definetely not on same tier as SM-liga when you are considering not only quality of hockey but all other aspects which are necessary for player development.
Frankly, I don't know much about Kron and his relationships with Zábranský. It might also be working the other way though, i.e. there can be some bad blood between them and Kron would like to take a revenge on Zábranský. But I don't know, really. A pure speculation made out of nothing. Still, Zábranský has helped NeÄÂas a lot so far, hasn't he? Generally speaking, Brno has been pretty good lately when it comes to producing top-end young talent, probably the best club in the country over the last five years or so in this regard.
As for the bolded, I don't believe it. Hertl adjusted pretty well I think. His only problem was bad English, NeÄÂas is already better at this.
And don't forget that in Brno, NeÄÂas has teammates with a plethora of top international experience (KHL, World Championships, Olympics), including a probable linemate with almost 1000 NHL games.
