Czech Draft Update: Kveton, Kana Heat Up

Vitkovice seniors remain a team to watch this season as another of their draft-eligible prospects broke into the senior Extraleague and started to make a recent splash.

Gritty late '87-born forward Tomas Kana earned a spot in the offensive rotation on the fourth line and has increasingly become a thorn in the side of opponents just as he was at the junior level.

Despite scoring his first senior goal last week, Kana's finishing skills remain a weakness. However, his huge heart and competitive nature mixed with a decent skill set helps him overcome his limited offensive talent. He isn't likely to develop into a star player, but will be attractive because of his character play and his ability to find the open man.

And there are good signs that the best from the Kana family is yet to come since Tomas' younger brother Jan, a 2008 eligible prospect, is already a key forward on the junior team as a two-time underager and displays an even higher talent level.

Skilled Kveton

A look at the top 2006 Czech forwards wouldn't be complete without Vsetin senior David Kveton.

Kveton gets a lion's share of playing time in the senior Extraleague due to the fact that the roster is by far the weakest in the league and the senior coaches are forced to rely on the performances of young players who either just graduated or are still junior-eligible.

He began this season on the second line but in recent weeks has suffered from frequent changes to his linemates as well as changing positions having been bounced between center and right wing. Kveton adapted quickly to the elite senior level and, at just 17, is already counted on as one of the team leaders. His skills are NHL-caliber without question, however his level of toughness and physical assertiveness tends to peak only at the top-scouted international tournaments.

When rarely demoted to the juniors, Kveton puts his impressive array of skills on display and emerges as a dominant player. His smooth skating and stickhandling enables him to make pylons out of opposing defensemen and also rule on the powerplay. The only knock against him on the junior level is that he is less willing to share the puck than on the senior level, often refusing to share the puck with anyone.

Ruzicka vs Prokop

As the situation stands, elite defensemen will be a precious commodity in the 2006 Czech class.

One player who could possibly give David Ruzicka a run top spot is Patrik Prokop, but he was sidelined with angina for most of September and will need time to regain his shape.

In the meantime, Ruzicka enjoyed more of a rollercoaster opening month. Despite not having elite offensive talent, he feels confident enough to make numerous offensive raids at the junior level and therefore occasionally suffers from turnovers, which impacts his reliability in a negative way.

Ruzicka has failed to make progress in his skating abilities during the summer and this weakness remains the most glaring one in terms of his pro potential. When he is on his game and keeping his offensive eagerness in check, he shows signs of developing into a promising defensive prospect who just requires more patient development than the majority of his peers.

Ruzicka is far from being a prospect who should be written off. However, elevating his average work ethic would make the task a whole lot easier.

Neuwirth Time

Between the pipes, Michal Neuwirth continues to steal the show as the top Czech eligible goaltender for 2006. Coming off an above-average showing at the Under-18 tournament in August, he found himself in hot water in the junior Extraleague as the Sparta Praha juniors battled adversity in the opening month, often relying strictly on the performance of their netminder to avoid losses.

Neuwirth responded with decent consistency but obviously wasn't the unbeatable hero the team needed as he did register some off-games and allowed a few soft goals. He will need to make further progress on his style, which could lead to possible adjustment trouble in North America as he tends to stay deep in the net against shooters.

However, since the rest of the package looks very appealing, Neuwirth is a player worth watching closely for the rest of this season.