Last week, several countries released their preliminary rosters for the upcoming World Juniors (or in Sweden’s case, pretty much their entire tournament roster was revealed). Today, it was Czechia’s turn as their federation announced their preliminary roster, one that consists of three goalies, nine defensemen, and 15 forwards. The roster is as follows with NHL affiliation, if applicable, in parentheses:
Goalies:
Michael Hrabal (Utah)
Jan Kavan
Jakub Milota (Nashville)
Defensemen:
Jakub Dvorak (Los Angeles)
Jakub Fibigr (Seattle)
Tomas Galvas
Vojtech Husinecky
Matteo Koci
Adam Jiricek (St. Louis)
Vojtech Port (Anaheim)
Marek Rocak
Patrik Volas
Forwards:
Vojtech Cihar
Jiri Felcman (Chicago)
Miroslav Holinka (Toronto)
Vojtech Hradec (Utah)
Adam Jecho (St. Louis)
Ondrej Kos (St. Louis)
Matej Mastalirsky
Adam Novotny
Dominik Petr
Eduard Sale (Seattle)
Petr Sikora (Washington)
Pavel Simek
Jakub Stancl (St. Louis)
Richard Zemlicka
Adam Zidlicky
St. Louis is by far the most represented NHL team out of this group with four players on the initial roster. Their top prospect of the group is Jiricek, a player whose availability for this tournament remains in question. Jiricek, the 16th overall pick back in June, has been limited to just four games with OHL Brampton this season. The federation is in touch with the Blues and a decision will be made about him being released later on.
Up front, Sale is the headliner. The 20th overall pick in 2023 by the Kraken, Sale is off to a solid start in the AHL with a dozen points in 19 games after splitting last season between OHL Barrie and Kitchener. It’s expected that Sale will not be with the Czechs for the entire camp but join them later on; a release date is being worked out between the federation and Seattle.
Czechia is in Pool B with Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland for the event which gets underway on December 26th. They’ll have to have their roster down to three goalies (which they are already at) and no more than 22 skaters by the time the tournament begins.