NEW YORK. The draft for the NHL is one of the most watched events on the calendar of the best hockey competition in the world every year. It will have a sweet taste for Slovakia in 2022.
Several compatriots can get into the NHL through the selection of newcomers, but up to three have a chance to go in the first round.
NHL Central Scouting released ladders greatest talents before the upcoming draft. They will change over time, how are Slovaks doing so far?
Led by Slafkovský
NHL scouts see the tall striker Juraj Slafkovsky the highest. The ranking is divided into players from North America and Europe.
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Slafkovský is in second place in Europe.
A native of Košice, he plays for TPS Turku in Finland. As expected, he dominates the junior competition, but he also won a position in the senior team, where he collected four points in 20 duels, of which one goal.
The only European who is overcoming it so far is Joakim Kemell. He also plays in Liige, Finland, but his statistics are at a different level – in 21 matches he has already scored 18 points for 12 goals and six assists.
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Juraj Slafkovský. (Author: Andreas Robanser)
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Slafkovský played both duels of Slovakia at the canceled Junior World Championships. Although he did not score, he was one of the best and most active players in Ivan Feneš’s selection.
He has already started for the senior national team, both at the World Championships and in the Olympic qualifiers.
Undervalued German
The defender Šimon Nemec, who is ranked as the sixth best skater in Europe according to NHL Central Scouting, was surprisingly low.
The only defender, the Czech David Jiříček, was higher than him. However, according to Scott Wheeler, an expert on young people from The Athletic, the German is higher not only among Europeans, but also among talents on a global scale.
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Simon Nemec in the match Slovakia – Belarus at the World Hockey Championship 2021. (Author: TASR)
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The defender of Nitra is the national team of Juraj Slafkovsky.
As two super-talents, they get joint opportunities to gain an increasingly secure place in the men’s selections of the national team. He also represented at the World Championships and in the Olympic qualifiers.
He has scored sixteen assists in 25 meetings of the current extra-league season.
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Mysterious Mescar
No one can reliably predict how high Filip Mešár will eventually place in the draft.
The striker HK Poprad won 15th place in the European rankings. Many scouts see a huge potential in it, some even think that it qualitatively reaches the level of Slafkovsky. However, he can be betrayed by physical parameters that the NHL still takes into account.
The newly eighteen-year-old forward has played twenty duels in the course of the year so far. He scored five goals and added four assists.
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Filip Mešár (right) in the final of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup against the Russians. (Author: TASR)
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A total of sixteen Slovaks
Sixteen representatives of Slovak hockey reached the rankings.
In the European ranking, we see Adam Sýkora in 36th place and Alex Šotek in 41st place. But then comes the big gap.
Pavol Štetka is next in line, followed by Jakub Križan in 108th place, Sebastian Nahalka in 110th place, Luca Krakovský in 117th place, Jakub Kopecký in 118th place and Matej Tomas, who from the Slovak point of view, closes the ranking in 131st place.
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Servác Petrovský was the 52nd best player among the players playing in North America, followed by Jozef Viliam Kmec in 92nd place and Marián Moško in 164th position. Adam Žlnka was also mentioned, but he did not get a number in the rankings.
The only goalkeeper from Slovakia who got on the lists is Šimon Latkóczy, ranked as the 32nd best goalkeeper from North America.
The fact that he will celebrate his twentieth birthday in June has probably also played a role in his position, and he has already had the chance to be drafted twice.
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