D Radim Mrtka - Třinec, Czechia (Draft 2025)

[MichaelFarrell]

Very happy he’s going to the WHL. I felt like I had a difficult time truly evaluating his potential in the Czech league.

 

[Goodman68]

Ah yes Seattle, the greatest of the Canadian cities.

This is in retaliation for the fact that many North Americans do not know where the Czech Republic is

 

[Czechboy]

Why not Dvorak?

I have no idea why he boycotted us last year.. it was very strange.

 

[Czechboy]

Ah yes Seattle, the greatest of the Canadian cities.

In fairness.. the first part says Canadian league and Seattle is in the CHL. Second part definitely says Canada though.lol.

 

[Bubbles]

This will give me an excuse to watch more T-birds games. Haven't watched too many since their run.

Kind of funny that he's the biggest player in the WHL right now. 6'6 and 200+.

He got kicked out of the first game right before the shootout. I kind of wanted to see him out there!

 

[PlayersLtd]

Seth Fryer (Victoria) played against Mrtka in his debut and he is 6'7" so not sure if that qualifies as bigger but certainly taller.

Did he get kicked out? Reschny was in the same scrum and got 2 mins and came out for the shootout.

 

[msboylan]

I was in Victoria last night and was happily surprised to catch his first game in the WHL. He definitely warmed up as the game went along, and considering that it was his first game in a while, amd he's certainly jet-lagged, I was impressed with him. He was put on the top pairing to boot (Seattle is missing some important defensemen at the moment). Yes, and after the buzzer at the end of overtime, he got a minor for spearing His second penalty of the game after kneeing someone earlier.
I'm watching the second game here between the Thunderbirds and Royals tonight, excited to see him play again!

 

[Bubbles]

Seth Fryer (Victoria) played against Mrtka in his debut and he is 6'7" so not sure if that qualifies as bigger but certainly taller.

Did he get kicked out? Reschny was in the same scrum and got 2 mins and came out for the shootout.

Oops, I meant biggest draft eligible player.

Yeah he got kicked out for spearing.

 

[Czechboy]

He's played 1 game and been kicked out already!lol

Like the snarl...

His chances of going to Ottawa for World Jrs are rising as 2 important D (jiricek and badinka) are not locks due to injuries and politics. Keep playing him heavy minutes!

 

[martygod12]

I am bit worried that he came to third worst and second worst in scoring team in whole WHL. Tough situation, Trinec wont use him in ELH, playing in Czech U20 is nonsense if you want to targed 1st round, but going to such a bad team as Seattle is this year? Idk doesnt seem like a particulary good move too. Maybe he could have tried Finland or Sweden instead.

He may very well dissapear here. If anyone has any info on him, does he at least getting some bigger ice time here?

 

[SW2024]

I am bit worried that he came to third worst and second worst in scoring team in whole WHL. Tough situation, Trinec wont use him in ELH, playing in Czech U20 is nonsense if you want to targed 1st round, but going to such a bad team as Seattle is this year? Idk doesnt seem like a particulary good move too. Maybe he could have tried Finland or Sweden instead.

He may very well dissapear here. If anyone has any info on him, does he at least getting some bigger ice time here?

Was your mission for today:
"Let's ruin the reputation of at least 3 young Czech talents... and try to do it in less than 5 minutes..." ?

I remember a guy who published a list of Czech prospects for the 2025 draft... basically all the 2007-born national team players were on it, mostly as very high rounders (which was funny, of course). I'm curious if he now agrees with your assessments.

 

[martygod12]

Was your mission for today:
"Let's ruin the reputation of at least 3 young Czech talents... and try to do it in less than 5 minutes..." ?

I remember a guy who published a list of Czech prospects for the 2025 draft... basically all the 2007-born national team players were on it, mostly as very high rounders (which was funny, of course). I'm curious if he now agrees with your assessments.

Yeah seeing this night czech results across NHL, AHL, CHL I went on a bit of a everything is f***ed rant this morning lol.

Of course I hope all of them will pan out and make it, but its kinda not going our way this season so far sadly.

It sucks becaues I remember those guys born 2007, killing it in U17 and league competitions last years, so the hopes were very high. And sadly most of them are underperforming so far this season.

 

[SW2024]

Yeah seeing this night czech results across NHL, AHL, CHL I went on a bit of a everything is f***ed rant this morning lol.

Of course I hope all of them will pan out and make it, but its kinda not going our way this season so far sadly.

It sucks becaues I remember those guys born 2007, killing it in U17 and league competitions last years, so the hopes were very high. And sadly most of them are underperforming so far this season.

So it was indeed you who posted that list back then:

"But I would say Cerny, Mrtka, Poletin, Benak, Novotny, Dravecky, Zahejsky, Pekar, Mikel, Cihar, Pavlik that's 11 players + Bartovic, Nestrasil, Katolicky, Novak who are not in the team right now... So 15 in totals with potential for top 100"

I would really like to read your current assessment for each guy.

 

[martygod12]

So it was indeed you who posted that list back then:

"But I would say Cerny, Mrtka, Poletin, Benak, Novotny, Dravecky, Zahejsky, Pekar, Mikel, Cihar, Pavlik that's 11 players + Bartovic, Nestrasil, Katolicky, Novak who are not in the team right now... So 15 in totals with potential for top 100"

I would really like to read your current assessment for each guy.

No need to mock anyone, lot of those guys looked much better last season then this season, so what exactly is your problem?

 

[Czechboy]

So it was indeed you who posted that list back then:

"But I would say Cerny, Mrtka, Poletin, Benak, Novotny, Dravecky, Zahejsky, Pekar, Mikel, Cihar, Pavlik that's 11 players + Bartovic, Nestrasil, Katolicky, Novak who are not in the team right now... So 15 in totals with potential for top 100"

I would really like to read your current assessment for each guy.

Save that one for a rainy day, did you?

Mrtka, Poletin, Benak, Novotny, Dravecky, Katolicky and Novak still have top 100 potential. They are spread out over several drafts.

Czechs have a black hole from 17 to 20. So they all look great at 17 (back to back Hlinka finals for instance) and then they all stagnate at once. Then us Czech posters bitch and moan. This is the cycle.lol

But thinking any of those guys could be top 100 when Marty posted it.. yeah that made sense at the time.

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

He's played 1 game and been kicked out already!lol

Like the snarl...

His chances of going to Ottawa for World Jrs are rising as 2 important D (jiricek and badinka) are not locks due to injuries and politics. Keep playing him heavy minutes!

No surprise given his surname

 

[SW2024]

No need to mock anyone, lot of those guys looked much better last season then this season, so what exactly is your problem

Save that one for a rainy day, did you?

Mrtka, Poletin, Benak, Novotny, Dravecky, Katolicky and Novak still have top 100 potential. They are spread out over several drafts.

Czechs have a black hole from 17 to 20. So they all look great at 17 (back to back Hlinka finals for instance) and then they all stagnate at once. Then us Czech posters bitch and moan. This is the cycle.lol

But thinking any of those guys could be top 100 when Marty posted it.. yeah that made sense at the time.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but most of these are 7 guys are still in Europe. Unfortunately once they move to North America they look very different

 

[Czechboy]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but most of these are 7 guys are still in Europe. Unfortunately once they move to North America they look very different

Benak and Mrtka are in North America.

Your point is an interesting one. There are lots of great NHL prospects playing in Europe.. every season. Never stops.

Sometimes there is a slow adjustment period to. Let's use Jakub Stancl, Eduard Sale or Ondrej Becher all as examples of guys that came over and had slow starts and found their footing. Jiri Kulich sure did fine in the AHL as a 19 year old. So did Jiricek. If you want I can include examples of Finn's, Russians and Swedes that stayed in Europe and came over to great success too. Heard of a kid named Michkov for instance.

I'm not sure if you are anti Czech or anti Euro or trying to have a serious conversation. If it's the serious conversation, maybe I'm assumign wrong.. what is your point here? My takeaway.. you think Euro's can't handle North American leagues. Boy I hope I'm wrong here!

 

[SW2024]

Benak and Mrtka are in North America.

Your point is an interesting one. There are lots of great NHL prospects playing in Europe.. every season. Never stops.

Sometimes there is a slow adjustment period to. Let's use Jakub Stancl, Eduard Sale or Ondrej Becher all as examples of guys that came over and had slow starts and found their footing. Jiri Kulich sure did fine in the AHL as a 19 year old. So did Jiricek. If you want I can include examples of Finn's, Russians and Swedes that stayed in Europe and came over to great success too. Heard of a kid named Michkov for instance.

I'm not sure if you are anti Czech or anti Euro or trying to have a serious conversation. If it's the serious conversation, maybe I'm assumign wrong.. what is your point here? My takeaway.. you think Euro's can't handle North American leagues. Boy I hope I'm wrong here!

Neither anti-Czech nor anti- Euro, never ever. On the contrary, I have tons of respect for European hockey.

I simply found this list of 2007 CZ prospects exaggerated and the opinions were based on them playing in other leagues. Some of these kids never even looked above average on international tournaments.

In my opinion, Mrtka attracted attention with his size (I don't see anything else there, sorry) and now that he moved to the US and simply getting more watched and exposed, the real assessment comes.

 

[martygod12]

Neither anti-Czech nor anti- Euro, never ever. On the contrary, I have tons of respect for European hockey.

I simply found this list of 2007 CZ prospects exaggerated and the opinions were based on them playing in other leagues. Some of these kids never even looked above average on international tournaments.

In my opinion, Mrtka attracted attention with his size (I don't see anything else there, sorry) and now that he moved to the US and simply getting more watched and exposed, the real assessment comes.

Cerny, Poletin, Mikel, Pavlik, Nestrasil were exaggerated that's true. They are average prospects which doesnt mean some of them can't be drafted.

Bartovic hasn't played a game this season, so it's hard to say, looked good last year, but probably would no get drafted higher then 4-5 round.

Others I would say are not. Pekar had around 1.5 ppg in national team throughout season last year if I am not mistaken. And Zahejsky played great in the U20 as 16 yrs old and were given an A rank in last ranking so he was amongst first 2-3 rounds. Their performances in CHL are disappointing at best so far.

Benak, Mrtka, Cihar, Novotny, Katolicky, Dravecky are considered 1-2 round prospects by many experts, so I would say not exaggerated at all

 

[pgfan66]

Save that one for a rainy day, did you?

Mrtka, Poletin, Benak, Novotny, Dravecky, Katolicky and Novak still have top 100 potential. They are spread out over several drafts.

Czechs have a black hole from 17 to 20. So they all look great at 17 (back to back Hlinka finals for instance) and then they all stagnate at once. Then us Czech posters bitch and moan. This is the cycle.lol

But thinking any of those guys could be top 100 when Marty posted it.. yeah that made sense at the time.

That’s not just the case with Czechs, it’s the same in other countries too, even in Germany and Switzerland young kids look super promising and then by the time the draft rolls around, they don’t look great anymore. It makes sense, though, because it’s easier to look good at lower levels. Once you start playing major junior or pro and U20 national team, things get tough.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with listing 15 guys with “top 100 potential” and a year later correcting that to 7. That’s just the way it goes. At the same time, there’ll probably be some others, including overagers, who didn’t look like top 100 players a year ago but do now.

 

[SW2024]

Cerny, Poletin, Mikel, Pavlik, Nestrasil were exaggerated that's true. They are average prospects which doesnt mean some of them can't be drafted.

Bartovic hasn't played a game this season, so it's hard to say, looked good last year, but probably would no get drafted higher then 4-5 round.

Others I would say are not. Pekar had around 1.5 ppg in national team throughout season last year if I am not mistaken. And Zahejsky played great in the U20 as 16 yrs old and were given an A rank in last ranking so he was amongst first 2-3 rounds. Their performances in CHL are disappointing at best so far.

Benak, Mrtka, Cihar, Novotny, Katolicky, Dravecky are considered 1-2 round prospects by many experts, so I would say not exaggerated at all

I find Benak amazing!!! Since his very early days.... really a huge fan of his. Unfortunately his rating has been going downhill since he moved to the US. The same is about to happen to Mrtka.

I wish we could see Novotny, Cihar and Dravecky playing in North America, too..... and then speak about them.

And again, please don't accuse me of being anti-Czech

 

[Czechboy]

I find Benak amazing!!! Since his very early days.... really a huge fan of his. Unfortunately his rating has been going downhill since he moved to the US. The same is about to happen to Mrtka.

I wish we could see Novotny, Cihar and Dravecky playing in North America, too..... and then speak about them.

And again, please don't accuse me of being anti-Czech

In fairness.. I asked and didn't accuse lol