The Specs: A tall (6’3”!) Czech-born centre (!) selected in the 6th round, 168th overall by the Canadiens. Born December 18th, 1992, and currently playing for Sparta Praha in the Czech Extraliga. Last season he played in 39 games with Sparta’s junior squad putting up 54 points (25 goals and 29 assists) and 20 penalty minutes.
The Skinny: Ridiculous puckhandling abilities as witnessed firsthand by yours truly at development camp, with a good set of eyes for the game and a pretty decent shot. Doesn’t always use his size in terms of physicality and has issues with balance and his defensive game, which he is due to improve if he wants his fair share of ice time with the big club.
The Stats:
| Regular Season | Playoffs/Relegation | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 2009-10 | HC Sparta Praha U18 | Czech U18 | 38 | 19 | 18 | 37 | 30 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2009-10 | HC Sparta Praha U20 | Czech U20 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2010-11 | HC Sparta Praha U20 | Czech U20 | 41 | 27 | 31 | 58 | 22 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| 2010-11 | HC Sparta Praha | Czech | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2010-11 | Czech Republic U20 (all) | International-Jr | 8 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 0 | |||||
| 2011-12 | HC Sparta Praha | European Trophy* | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
*Tournament link: http://www.europeantrophy.com/index.php
What you’ve probably heard by now: That the 2012 Memorial Cup-hosting Shawinigan Cataractes were trying to get him to join their team this year. However, with the 2011-12 season already getting underway in the Extraliga, it’s safe to say he’s elected to stay over in Europe.
What you may not know: He was drafted a full round and 48 picks earlier in the KHL version of the Entry Draft, by Severstal Cherepovets. A notable recent acquisition of theirs is Niklas Kronwall’s brother Staffan.
NHL Comparable: Not comparable per se, but he says he likes Ales Hemsky’s style, as well as Mario Lemieux’s (can’t blame him for that now, can we?)
On the best players he’s played with and against: “The best player I’ve ever played with is David Výborný. He’s got about 550 games in the NHL. He’s really a great player, same as he is really a good person. And against? It is Alexei Yashin, I played against him and his team SKA Petrohrad in Davos with Sparta, it was really exciting. “
Most embarrassing song on his iPod: “A few weeks ago I downloaded some cover version of the Beatles from some boy. It really is the most embarrassing song I’ve ever heard.”
Social Media User?: Early signs point to no, and judging from that last quote and some of his other answers in this interview, that’s really quite a shame!
For further reading see: Pribyl’s Skill Off the Charts at Habs Development Camp