U17 World Hockey Challenge - Czech Republic

Team Czech Republic - 8th Place

The Czech Republic hockey program has seen a rapid decline as the Czech's have not produced a first rounder since the 1989 draft class with Jakub Voracek. This team offers little optimism that that trend will change. To their credit they played two strong games to open the tournament, actually out-shooting gold medal winners Team USA in the first game and accomplishing the same feat against Team Atlantic before losing both games by a single goal. McKeen's Director of Scouting David Burstyn looks at several Czech prospects.

Forwards: D

With only 13 goals scored all tournament, (7 in their final game) the Czech forwards simply could not score. They were shutout in two games and lacked a PP that had any type of efficiency. Their leading scorer was a defenseman - Marek Hrbas. The top unit of Hyka, Sedlak and Svihalek started to form some chemistry in the final game of the tournament albeit against a Finland team that had already given up. The Czech's did not bring their best team electing to leave Martin Frk, a top prospect at home due to disciplinary reasons.

Defenseman : C

The play of Marek Hrbas and Milan Doudera allowed the Czech's not to get beaten into submission each game. On two separate pairings, the Czech coaching staff was very aware to have one of them on the ice at all times. Hrbas offered more of an offensive dimension and finished as the top-scoring defenseman in the tournament and finished in the top ten in tournament scoring as well. Doudera was more of a defensive-minded player with acute hockey sense. With no defender over 6-feet they were constantly bullied and beaten off pucks down low.

Goaltending: C-

The goaltending tandem of Machovsky and Honzik split the duties during the tournament. They were given very little support as teams averaged a minimum of 31 shots against them. Both posted poor statistical numbers, however they both came up big under pressure before collapsing against Team Russia and Pacific in the third and fourth games of the tournament. Matej Machovsky recorded the Team's lone win against Team Finland to stave off a last place finish.

Scouting Notes:

Matej Machovsky (2011), G, Opava

A sizeable goalie that relies primarily on his size to make saves .. his lateral movement is suspect and the majority of the goals scored against him were due to his inability to slide across .. shooters clued in on this and tried to force him to move side-to-side .. he maintains good composure in his net, as he is calm in his saves and is not drawn from the centre of his net .. he needs to make improvements to his recovery skills, as he does not get up and down fast enough in the butterfly .. must monitor that his stance is more compact, as he leaves too many holes open .. tends to go down early exposing the top portion of the goal .. can flat out misplay shots and has mental lapses .. has a nice frame and modest skill set to draw from but is far from complete.

David Honzik (2011), G, Karlovy Lavy U17

Honzik deserved a better fate against both Team USA and Team Pacific, as he kept his team in the game in both contests kicking out more than 30 saves in each game .. was named Player-of-the-Game against Team Pacific .. was constantly run in the early stages of the game against Team Russia but battled and competed hard to make saves .. was on his stomach, stacking the pads and sprawling at every opportunity to keep the puck out of the net .. thrown to the wolves in that game, as the Czech forwards could not contain the speed or size of the Russian forwards and he was peppered with shots in close .. lost the game 6-0 but the score could have been much worse .. big body that plays a solid butterfly and reads plays well .. exhibits good agility for a 6-foot-3, 195-pound goaltender .. will handle the puck and generally makes good plays with it .. adequate rebound control .. gained the confidence of the Czech coaching staff, as even though they rotated the starts he saw action against Team Russia, Team USA and Team Pacific, three of the better teams in the tournament .. has the raw abilities and size to become a viable option come the NHL draft.

Milan Doudera (2011), D, Klando U20

Doudera had a sensational season last year as a member of the U17 team posting 46-11-26-37 totals before graduating to the U20 league .. a smart defensive-minded player whose puck skills and offensive instincts are raw but maturing .. he is not the most graceful skater, rather slow in his start up but he positions himself well to stay involved in plays .. showed poise with the puck when on the man advantage and given additional time and space to make a play .. at times, he pressed for offence and gave up his position on the line to skate down low looking for offence .. not a strong shot and is more renowned for his passing skills .. limited stride and overall speed impede his chances to be considered an NHL prospect, however given time he could develop into a good European pro.

Marek Hrbas (2011), D, Fargo USHL

Hrbas played last season at the Ivan Hlinka tournament as an underage player partnering with David Musil .. Hrbas, the team captain is honing his craft in the USHL and is faring modestly considering his youth and still physically underdeveloped frame (5'10, 170) .. was the leading scorer for this team as he was a permanent fixture on the PP .. very swift and fluid in his movement, he is agile in all directions .. he also has good balance, as many forwards tried to lean on him down low and he was not easily pushed off the puck .. he is not easily intimidated either and delivers his fair share of hits .. must focus when defending, as he can still be beaten by flashy forwards with size in 1-1 situations .. Hrbas acts as a fourth forward and readily jumps into the offence if he is not himself rushing the puck up the ice .. average shot, he did manage to get his shots through and was successful as a result .. better passer as he has good offensive awareness and finds the open man .. Hrbas is one of the better Czech prospects available for the NHL draft, playing and learning the North American game will be key to his development.

Vaclav Tomek (2011), C, HC Slavia Praha U17

Tomek put forth solid and consistent efforts away from the puck and played an honest and determined game .. not blessed with an abundance of skill, his play was noticeable, as he is a slightly better than average skater and never stopped applying the forecheck .. even when games were out of reach he still competed .. he has good size at 6-feet and165 pounds to be a presence and muscle guys off the puck .. good hockey sense in a defensive application as he actively played the PK .. lacks the offensive game to be considered a top-six forward but brought many intangibles to the Czech team that could not be measured on the score sheet.

Vojtech Butor (2011), C, Klando U20

Has been splitting time with both the U18 and U20 Klando team .. the tallest player on the team (6'3) but is drastically underdeveloped at only 140 pounds .. a beanpole on the ice, he is a bowlegged skater with minimal power in his stride .. he can muster ok levels of speed once he gets going, however he tends to skate by plays and is not overly involved when playing at his fastest pace .. also finds himself in trouble, as he does not move his feet at times and finds himself again out of position to become involved in a play .. hockey sense needs to be further evaluated as this could just be case of not being confident enough in his own game .. due to his size and the fact that he always seemed to be near or around the puck, he is a player that should be watched.

Lukas Sedlak (2011), C, HC Ceske Budejovice

The best all-around forward for Team Czech, he plays a game that is very North American inspired .. tenacious and pugilistic forward whose appetite for the puck was unrivalled than any other Czech forward .. bangs and crashes and goes to the front of the net .. he has above-average speed and pushes the envelope to the outside, constantly driving the net .. he is aggressive but not necessarily strong .. he plays a good down-low game and is always battling along the boards for loose pucks .. has some finish in front of the goal but is not a goal scorer .. has the most potential to find himself drafted by a CHL team and playing in North America to develop his game.