Absolutely in those cases and Hnilicka is a hall of famer.. but at that point he was done in the NHL after an okay career. He was back in Europe and not much left.
Kovar, Salak and Stepanek over NHl goalies is maddening and hasn't worked once. I do know Kovar caught the bronze for us so that is the one example. I don't know of any other nations that bring NHL goalies and bench them as much as we do. Francouz over Mrazek a few years ago was another one. Then, once Francouz was an NHL goalie, he got benched for Bartosak the next year.lol It just goes on and on.
Also, with all due respect as I love them.. winning gold at at a world's and winning at a best on best are 2 different things. The irony that our last gold at the World's was by Tomas Vokoun is not lost on me.lol
Every year it's this coach knows better than the world... 'you gotta see this guy in Liberec'.
FTR.. not one of the Euro goalies every went on to become an established NHL goalie.. so it's not like we were starting a pre NHL Hasek over an NHL goalie.... it's always around 25 to 30 and a full time Euro goalie.