Czech Extraliga’s top youngsters for this ongoing season

We picked ten prospects for you, four of them eligible for the 2014 or later NHL drafts, who we think will impress the most this year. And why not start with the masked man in the goal of the defending champion?

HC Škoda Plzeň – Matěj Machovský (G)

20-year-old goaltender from Opava might be a surprising replacement for Marek Mazanec, who helped the team win the title last year and then left for the NHL, most likely to become the starter with the Milwaukee Admirals, the minor-league affiliation of the Nashville Predators, the team that drafted him in the sixth round a year ago. 

It's not like Machovský came back home and the team just handed the job out to him. If he wants to be the starter, he's going to have to earn it as Martin Straka, former NHLer and current GM of Pilsen, brought former champion Lukáš Mensator to fight for the number-one goalie job.

However, Machovský has started in four out of five games so far in this season and it looks like he's the front-runner in the battle for the starting job. That's no surprise though. The young netminder played three years in the Ontario Hockey League and belonged among the better goalies over there. Despite that, he went undrafted back in 2011, but now can become new Mazanec, who also got drafted as a 20-year-old. 

HC Sparta Praha – Dominik Simon (LW/C)

This native of Prague, Czech capital, had a breakout season last year. Not an Extraliga breakout, but he definitely attracted attention as a full-time professional player with only a fragment of the season spent in the Under-20 Extraliga. Sparta gave him a chance and even though he couldn't capitalize well enough to stay in the top league, he did quite well and now is supposed to step up.

At the end of the season he had 25 games in the 1. liga where he played for Litoměřice, Sparta's affiliate team, and scored 9 goals and 10 assists for 19 points. Can he be as impressive at the Extraliga level?

One day, he probably will be, but right now it looks like he should've stayed down in the lower leagues. No points in five games, but it's not like his team desperately needs more offense. Let's just hope he gets enough ice-time to get better. He's just 19 so the ice-time is vital for his development.

HC Verva Litvínov – Tomáš Pavelka (D)

While Jiří Šlégr had intentions of coming back and play for Litvínov, a rather strong team at the Extraliga level, Tomáš Pavelka looks like a right fit into the team's defense, even though he might not turn out to be a full-time Extraliga player just yet. The 20-year-old native of Ostrava, who was brought up by the Vítkovice orgnaization, currently plays for two teams.

Verva has been sending him to Most, 1. liga affiliation of the team, back and forth and so he already has eight games played in this season. He has looked like a good two-way defenseman with good defensive abilities and already one point in the Extraliga and two points in the 1. liga.

Pavelka is one of the players returning from Canada. These players usually need time to adjust to wider ice so their new beginnings back home are not easy, but Pavelka makes it look like a myth. Back in the QMJHL, he played for the Prince Edward Island Rocket (currently Charlottetown Rocket) and had 63 points in 123 games over the span of two regular seasons. 

Rytíři Kladno – Milan Doudera (D)

There's a new hit game in the Czech Republic and it's called fantasy hockey. I know, it's nothing quite new elsewhere, but this is the first season of fantasy Extraliga and so the game gets a lot of attention and the Czechs looks like they love it, including the players. While there are stats you know from other fantasy leagues, there's also a stat that combines all the hard-working parts of hockey like hits, blocked shots, +/- ratings and so on. Guess who is best at that.

Yes, it's big, 20-year-old defenseman Milan Doudera who is currently in his second Extraliga season. On an otherwise weak Kladno team, he has a +2 rating and just leads the whole league in the hard-work index (called Radegast Index after league's official beer).

Do I have Doudera on my fantasy team? No, but I might add him one day. The reason why is simple – he's been that kind of a player for some time and it doesn't look like it's going to change. 

HC Vítkovice Steel – Jan Štencel (D)

High hopes were invested into this versatile defenseman last year as he was the top Czech-based prospect for the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. Even though he had a good season in which he saw relatively lot of Extraliga ice-time (18 regular-season games) and played at the Under-20 World Junior Championships in Ufa, Russia, he was overlooked by all NHL teams.

However, it looks like being unsuccessful at the draft won't stop this 18-year-old blueliner. The Vítkovice coaches have trusted him in four of five games this year and he's been +1 even though he hasn't had much ice-time.

Štencel is a player who could still have some chance of making it into the NHL one year. He has potential of becoming just a great two-way defenseman.

HK Mountfield Hradec Králové – Luboš Rob, Jr. (LW)

After the Mountfield franchsie relocated from České Budějovice to Hradec Králové, it took some good youngsters with it to the bigger town in Eastern Bohemia. Luboš Rob, Jr., is a son of former Extraliga player, Luboš Rob, Sr., and just like Štencel belonged among top Czech-based prospects for the 2014 draft. 

Also, Rob captained the Czech Under-18 national team throughout most of its season and played in one Extraliga game back home in Budějovice. That simply wasn't enough to impress the scouts as he just isn't the most complete player.

Rob is a skilled winger with smooth hands, quick feet and good leadership abilities, but, as he's just 6-foot and 172 pounds, he's not the most physical player on the ice. Hradec hasn't trusted him yet in an Extraliga game and so he's only played two European Trophy games for his new hometown's team. I'd bet that there are more games coming later in the season.

HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice – Michael Špaček (F)

Not related to former NHLer, defenseman Jaroslav Špaček, Pardubice's Michael Špaček might be the next thing coming out of the hockey town that produced big players like Dominik Hašek or Aleš Hemský. There's not a guaranteed spot in the Extraliga for him in this season which is no surprise, even though he played in four European Trophy games in summer.

The reason why he's the top prospect of his team is his age. At 16 years of age, he's one of country's top prospects for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and it's believed that early entry into the Extraliga, combined with big minutes of ice-time in the Under-20 competition, will help him attract attention of the scouts.

It's no wonder that his team has been a little hesitant with dressing him for Extraliga games and he still has a lot to prove. He's not a dominant player at the Under-20 level yet, but he's really close. 

HC Kometa Brno – Pavel Jenyš (F)

Character forward from country's second-largest city is a hot candidate for the upcoming draft. He played at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament in August and we can say that if it wasn't for him, the Czechs wouldn't have won the bronze which is a big success, by the way. 

Down by two goals in an important game with Switzerland, Jenyš powered a team with a goal in the last minute of the third to make it 3-2, then assisted on the game-tying goal by Liberec defenseman Filip Pyrochta. The team managed to win the game in shootout and beat Sweden the next day which got them through to the semifinals. 

He's pretty big for a 17-year-old and even though he only might be a late-round prospect for the 2014 draft, he looks like he'll be a mainstay in Kometa's first team in this season. He already has five games played this season and one, game-winning, goal. 

Piráti Chomutov – Ondřej Kaše (F)

Coming out of a hockey family with his father being a retired professional hockey player and his brother a young prospect for the 2015 draft, Ondřej Kaše is with no doubt the top Czech-based prospect for the upcoming, 2014 draft. 

Alongside his Chomutov linemate David Kämpf, who missed out on his chance to get drafted this year, and aforementioned Rob, Kaše was as an underage player, a starting lineup member last year for the Czech Under-18 national team and played with the two on the first line. That's signs of big promise.

And not just that, also the fact that he's been doing better in this Extraliga season than players like Simon, Kämpf or Rob as he already has two points in five games and is tied for fifth in team's point-scoring. That's pretty big even though it's just start of the season.

Bílí Tygři Liberec – Pavel Zacha (C)

Let's wrap this up with who might be the top prospect of all the Extraliga prospects. 16-year-old centre Pavel Zacha is a big intimidating forward at 6-foot-3 and is eligible for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, just like Špaček. But, when the two squared off, Zacha's dominance was clearly visible.

Last year was a huge breakout season for the young forward. As a fifteen-year-old, he had a point-per-game average in the Czech Under-20 Extraliga, had his professional league debut and had three points in five games of the Under-18 World Junior Championships. It's no surprise that people are talking about him as a possible top-ten prospect for the 2015 draft.

Now he's a full-time member of Liberec first team and he also scored his first goal in his Extraliga debut, not even a minute into the game at Třinec. It feels like this hard worker is going to be a big star.

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