Does anybody remember that there was a time when the Czech Republic was the best nation in all of hockey? They have won the World Championship a total of six times and won an Olympic gold medal in Nagano in 1998. Nowadays, we see the Czech team struggle to make it past the quarter-finals in any given championship - including Junior levels. The question is if other countries have become better, or whether the Czech Republic just have lost their former skills in talent development.
Last year, seven Czech players were drafted. The first one to hear his name called was Lukas Parik, a goaltender selected by the Los Angeles Kings toward the end of the third round.