In the past few days, we wrote about the future World Cup in hockey, which will not be completely full-fledged. Only four countries that can only make a team of NHL players should play on it. Even the Czech Republic can no longer make a team of only hockey players from the professional league, but it would be able to do it with the help of Slovakia. Let’s take a look at what such a team could look like.
The plan is for a mini-tournament between Sweden, Finland, USA and Canada to be played in February 2025. The Russians also have enough hockey players to make up the team, but the NHL will leave them out for understandable reasons.
The Czech Republic currently has 25 hockey players in the NHL, which at first glance is enough, but not at second glance. Slovakia has seven players, which is not nearly enough.
Where is the problem with the Czech Republic? Out of 25, there are up to five goalkeepers and only four defenders. They would not disband the team because of the missing defenders. So how could we help them and what would a joint team look like?
news-item-description">We won’t see a full-fledged World Cup in hockey anytime soon, but we could see a tournament with the best players already at the Olympics, and a little earlier also an incomplete World Cup. However, we can forget about Slovak participation.
Let’s start with the goalkeepers. Here it is clear that all three would be from the Czech Republic. Jaroslav Halák will most likely no longer be in the NHL in 2025, and our best goalkeeper hope, Adam Gajan, probably won’t be in the most prestigious professional league then.
With the current five of Petr Mrázek (Chicago), Karel Vejmelka (Arizona), Vítek Vaněček (New Jersey), Lukáš Dostál (Anaheim) and Dan Vladař (Calgary), it would depend on the current form.
We have defenders together, you can say, just right. Filip Hronek, who currently has 19 points in 20 duels in Vancouver, would certainly not be missing from the Czech Republic. In two years, 35-year-old Radko Gudas or Jan Rutta could still be actively playing at that time. And currently 19-year-old David Jiříček, who is slowly settling into the first team of Columbus, cannot be missing either. Stanislav Svozil, who could also be in the NHL at that time, also shows himself in a good light at the Columbus farm.
The Slovaks currently have two defensemen in the NHL, who certainly could not be missing in such a selection – Erik Černák and Martin Fehérváry. And it will be a big surprise if the 19-year-old Šimon Nemec is not a stable NHL defender at that time.
In particular, the connection between Nemec and Jiříček would be extremely interesting, as both of them are among the biggest young hopes among defensemen in the entire NHL and they both waged an interesting battle for the highest drafted defenseman in 2022. advice.
World Hockey Championship 2023: Kazakhstan – Slovakia (Šimon Nemec) Source: imago
The attack would also be dominated by Czech players, who would probably also occupy key positions in the first attacks. Without a doubt, David Pastrňák from the Boston Bruins is the biggest star of the selection, and we would probably see center Pavel Zacha next to him. They play together in the first offense of the Bruins, where they are complemented by Brad Marchand.
Here, there would be several candidates from both countries to take his place, be it Martin Nečas, Ondřej Palát, Dominik Kubalík, or from the Slovaks – if his development progresses – Juraj Slafkovský probably has the best chance, but we are more likely to see a Czech striker here.
The Czechs would probably occupy the positions of the other two centers – Tomáš Hertl and Filip Chytil would share the second and third attacks. Radek Faksa, David Kämpf or Slovak Adam Ružička could apply for the position of fourth.
And who else from under the Tatras? Tomáš Tatar probably shouldn’t be missing either, and if he keeps up the current trend, neither will Martin Pospíšil.
And another? Will Dalibor Dvorský then be in a position to displace one of the experienced Czechs from the center position? Rather not yet.
Who else among the young players could take a shot? There are several candidates from both countries here. Jiří Kulich is doing well in the AHL, it is questionable how Filip Mešár will handle the transition to the AHL and later possibly also the NHL. For players from the 2023 draft, it will probably be too early in two years.
It is difficult to guess who exactly will be in what form and how they can shoot within two years, but this is how ŠPORT.sk sees the possible lineup in 2025.
Possible line-up of the Czech Republic and Slovakia Karel Vejmelka, Ondřej Dostál, Vítek Vaněček
Filip Hronek – Erik Černák
Radko Gudas – David Jiříček
Šimon Nemec – Martin Fehérváry
Ján Rutta
David Pastrňák – Pavel Zacha – Martin Nečas
Juraj Slafkovský – Tomáš Hertl – Dominik Kubalík
Ondřej Palát – Filip Chytil – Tomáš Tatar
Martin Pospíšil – Adam Ružička – Jakub Vrána
2023-11-24 14:30:00
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