Czech national team head coach spoke to media on Friday as the team begins preparations to defend its World title, which it won on home ice last year in Prague. However, many of the players who were part of last year’s team won’t be returning this year, for a variety of reasons.
“Some have excused themselves due to injuries or personal reasons, but there are also players who are interested,” Rulík said in an iSport.cz article.
The players who will definitely not go include a few who have performed well for the Czech national team in the past, such as Dominik Kubalík, who had five goals in 10 games last year, David Tomášek, who led the Swedish Hockey League in scoring and just signed a contract with the Edmonton Oilers, and Radko Gudas of the Anaheim Ducks, who was a stalwart on the Czech defense last year, but is due to have surgery at the end of this season.
Others who will definitely not go are David Jiříček of the Minnesota Wild and Filip Chytil of the Vancouver Canucks, who are both out for the season with injuries.
As recently as February, it appeared that David Pastrňák did not plan to play at this year’s Worlds; however, Rulík indicated that the Boston Bruins star is reconsidering and he will almost definitely be available. The fact that Pastrňák’s fiancée is from Sweden and he has many conections there from his junior hockey days is probably a drawing card.
Semifinal vs Sweden a family affair for David PastrňákPastrňák couldn’t hide how happy he was for Boston Bruins teammate Pavel Zacha, who flew overseas with him this week to play in his first World Championship.
“If they made the playoffs, he obviously wouldn’t,” the Czech coach said. “At this moment and in this situation, as we spoke... I’ll put it this way, he’s thinking about it.”
However, fellow Bruins Pavel Zacha and Jakub Lauko are apparently less likely to go due to injuries.
Rulík
expressed optimism about Anaheim goaltender Lukáš
Dostál and Vancouver defenseman Filip
Hronek, whom he and
