Extraliga Season Underway, Junior Players Impress
By Radoslav Vavřina, Lead Writer, The Czech List
The 2014-15 season has started in Czech Extraliga and many junior players have been there since the very beginning. Eight under-20 players have become permanent members of Extraliga teams while many others have played one or two games already. The permanent players include 2015 NHL Entry Draft prospects Michael Špaček and Lukáš Jašek.
It was long known about Špaček that he will play this new season for the first team of his hometown club in Pardubice. As a third-line centre, he’s got one assist in three games and has been stellar in the faceoff circle. Jašek, another member of the silver-winning Ivan Hlinka team, plays for Třinec with more modest expectations and hasn’t gotten onto the scoreboard yet. Also in Třinec, 2016 prospect Lukáš Doudera made his Extraliga debut this past week.
Other names include former Youngstown Phantom Lukáš Klok, top Czech defenseman of the 2013 NHL draft class Jan Štencel or Slovak international Martin Réway who spent the last season in Gatineau of QMJHL.
Windy Boatright