Is Czechia closer to “Big Five” or closer to Seventh?

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Question is as it sounds.

There’s an established big five for international hockey of Canada, USA, Sweden, Finland, Russia (yes, they can’t compete in IIHF, but for the sake of discussion they’re included).

Czechia has been looked at as the clear sixth for many years with a gap from them to the big five, yet also a gap from them to whoever is seventh (Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, take your pick).

Where do they currently stand (the Pastrnak, Necas, Dostal generation) and where is this headed with their upcoming generation (let’s say last five drafts and next few)? What areas can they compete with the best and what areas are still too weak?

 

[Czechboy]

Still 6..

We do have some great forwards. I am comfortable running necas and pasta on seperate lines to create a solid top 6. One gets zacha. Other gets hertl.

I would out distal against anyone in a international matchup and not be worried. Yes, I know that is controversial but I have nothing but calm with the next vokoun in net.

That's all great.

Our D is not even close.. gudas and hronek are our absolute best. I love them but that isn't Hughes and werenski.lmao

If rutta leave NHL... We have no NHL D.

We won't be big 5 till some young d gets to NHl.. we have lots drafted and in nice spots too. Too 100 guys include jirixek, jirixek, scozil, alscherz hamara and Spacek. Mrtka and psnecka may be top 100 soon. However.. they have to start cracking rosters and till that happens. We are not good enough.

My dream Olympic d core right now is

Gudas, hronek, rutta, jirixek, scozil and Spacek. 2 NHL players, 1 in between and 3 AHL guys. Ouch.

Also.. f*** my auto correct

 

[Summer Rose]

Also.. f*** my auto correct

I think one of my least favorite parts about being a hockey fan is when I try to type out a player's name on my phone whose name isn't an average American or Canadian name or whatever. Happens even with some players who are American or Canadian and their name's kind of funky. Even worse when their name is actually somewhat similar to a fairly normal English word and gets constantly autocorrected to that word. Filip Hronek's name turns into Flip Horn, as an example.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Czechs are better than Sweden. Just look at last years WC semifinals game when they crushed us.

 

[WarriorofTime]

5) Finland - 5.1 % NHL Games Played 2024-25
6) Czechia - 2.7 % NHL Games Played 2024-25
7) Switzerland - 1.3 % NHL Games Played 2024-25

so... right in between, lol

 

[Czechboy]

Czechs are better than Sweden. Just look at last years WC semifinals game when they crushed us.

True story. I rewatched that last night.lol. The commentators were so excited everytime line 2 scored.lol. And line 2 had a night.

Doesn't mean shit though.. you guys did much better than we did at 4 nations. Not even close

 

[Czechboy]

5) Finland - 5.1 % NHL Games Played 2024-25
6) Czechia - 2.7 % NHL Games Played 2024-25
7) Switzerland - 1.3 % NHL Games Played 2024-25

so... right in between, lol

I'll ad that Swiss are in trouble. Aging out. Bad drafts and no NHL goalie. They are at their peak right now. Josi is also iffy with concussion issues.

Finland is totally fine and we won't catch them soon.

 

[WarriorofTime]

I'll ad that Swiss are in trouble. Aging out. Bad drafts and no NHL goalie. They are at their peak right now. Josi is also iffy with concussion issues.

Finland is totally fine and we won't catch them soon.

Yeah it's gearing up to be a pretty big wasteland in five years by the 2030 Olympics as there isn't a lot in the pipeline. Belarus might be a stronger hockey nation by 2029-30.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Yeah it's gearing up to be a pretty big wasteland in five years by the 2030 Olympics as there isn't a lot in the pipeline. Belarus might be a stronger hockey nation by 2029-30.

Belarus will never be a top 8 nation. Not sure why you keep hyping them.

 

[Eye of Ra]

True story. I rewatched that last night.lol. The commentators were so excited everytime line 2 scored.lol. And line 2 had a night.

Doesn't mean shit though.. you guys did much better than we did at 4 nations. Not even close

Hmm Czechs was not in 4 Nations. We will see what happens in the Olympics.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Belarus will never be a top 8 nation. Not sure why you keep hyping them.

I didn't make the Belarus Future 8th thread.

I said Belarus could be better than Switzerland which if you look at young pipelines is not an unreasonable thing to believe could happen.

Not sure why this is a weird point for you.

 

[Eye of Ra]

I didn't make the Belarus Future 8th thread.

I said Belarus could be better than Switzerland which if you look at young pipelines is not an unreasonable thing to believe could happen.

Not sure why this is a weird point for you.

They wont surpass Switzerland. Not gonna happen.

 

[WarriorofTime]

They wont surpass Switzerland. Not gonna happen.

Have you seen what Switzerland has in terms of young players, like 01 born or later? It's not a very pretty picture.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Have you seen what Switzerland has in terms of young players, like 01 born or later? It's not a very pretty picture.

Swiss have never been good in Juniors. As long as NLA is strong they will keep being a top 8 nation.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Swiss have never been good in Juniors.

Not talking about junior competition, talking about NHL or even AHL potential. Swiss League is dominated by imports. Entire top 10 in scoring this year was non-Swiss, like only 7 of the top 50 scorers were Swiss. Maybe they'll start handing Canadians/Americans passports if they play there for a couple seasons for their future national teams.

 

[Czechboy]

Yeah it's gearing up to be a pretty big wasteland in five years by the 2030 Olympics as there isn't a lot in the pipeline. Belarus might be a stronger hockey nation by 2029-30.

I'm very high on Belarus future... Hockey wise.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Not talking about junior competition, talking about NHL or even AHL potential. Swiss League is dominated by imports. Entire top 10 in scoring this year was non-Swiss, like only 7 of the top 50 scorers were Swiss. Maybe they'll start handing Canadians/Americans passports if they play there for a couple seasons for their future national teams.

Swiss have never produced much nhl talent and NLA has always had many imports. The strength of Swiss hockey has always been the many good swiss player in NLA.

Belarus had Salei, Grabovski, Kostitstyn brothers, Belarus wont ever have more than that.

 

[Eye of Ra]

I'm very high on Belarus future... Hockey wise.

Why?

 

[WarriorofTime]

Swiss have never produced much nhl talent and NLA has always had many imports. The strength of Swiss hockey has always been the many good swiss player in NLA.

Belarus had Salei, Grabovski, Kostitstyn twins, Belarus wont ever have more than that.

I can tell you don’t keep up with prospects, trends and such so I guess we will leave things as they are.

 

[Caser]

Belarus had Salei, Grabovski, Kostitstyn twins, Belarus wont ever have more than that.

Twins born two years apart?

 

[Dofs]

Yeah it's gearing up to be a pretty big wasteland in five years by the 2030 Olympics as there isn't a lot in the pipeline. Belarus might be a stronger hockey nation by 2029-30.

Belarus might have stronger top end talent than Switzerland, but they will not going to have the depth to compete with them.

That is, if Belarus will even exist by 2030. There is a non-negligible chance that it won't.

 

[Eye of Ra]

I can tell you don’t keep up with prospects, trends and such so I guess we will leave things as they are.

Prospects dosent mean anything if they dont pan out. Belarus wont out of sudden start to produce 10 good NHLers. But alright. Sidorov, Kuzmin, Loschko, Klimchuck, Moroz, Solovyev will all become good NHLers, right?

 

[Eye of Ra]

Twins born two years apart?

Oh sorry i was just watching the movie twins featuring Danny devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Got stuck in my head.

 

[JackSlater]

I'd say closer to seven but could see it either way. basically 6.1 or 6.2 is closer to 7 than it is to 5, but not drastically so.

 

[Czechboy]

Why?

U18 was doing very well till ban. Some intriguing prospects coming up. Protas is legit. Hoping klapka becomes him tbh