Welcome to December! We’re officially twenty-five days away from the start of the 2022 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta. As I did last year, I’ll be posting daily updates, as well as a preview/prediction post that will be coming out in the next few days.
Today’s article is something I’ve been wanting to write about for several months ago. August is the usual start time for many scouts of National Hockey League teams to compile preliminary lists for next summer’s Entry Draft. In August, two top prospects stood out to me, forward Juraj Slafkovsky and defenceman Simon Nemec. Both of whom have played at the 2021 IIHF World Hockey Championship in May/June, and also helped Slovakia qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics in late-August.
Slafkovsky and Nemec are just two of the names who are leading to a resurgence of hockey in Slovakia after several years of decline and mediocrity. Along with Slafkovsky and Nemec, forwards Dalibor Dvorsky and Filip Mesar are two names to keep an eye on. Dvorsky will likely be a top-five pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, while Mesar could potentially be a second round pick in this coming draft.
There are other players on the rise in Slovakia, such as Peter Repcik and Martin Chromiak, but the focus of today’s article is the four players I mentioned above.
Juraj Slafkovsky. Birthdate: March 30 2004 (17y/o). My projection: Top-five 2022. NHL Prelim rating: A.
| Year | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- |
| 2020-21 | Slovakia U20 (World Juniors) | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -5 |
| 2020-21 | Slovakia (World Championship) | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 |
| 2021-22 | Slovakia U18 (Hlinka Gretzky Cup) | 5 | 3 | 6 | 9 | -1 |
| 2021-22 | Slovakia (Olympic Qualification) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | +1 |
| 2021-22 | TPS U20 (U20 SM-sarja) | 11 | 6 | 12 | 18 | +6 |
| 2021-22 | TPS (Liiga) | 16 | 0 | 3 | 3 | +/-0 |
Simon Nemec. Birthdate: February 15 2004 (17y/o). My projection: Top-fifteen 2022. NHL Prelim rating: A.
| Year | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- |
| 2020-21 | Slovakia U20 (World Juniors) | 5 | 0 | 4 | 4 | -4 |
| 2020-21 | Slovakia (World Championship) | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -3 |
| 2021-22 | Slovakia U18 (Hlinka Gretzky Cup) | 5 | 1 | 5 | 6 | +/-0 |
| 2021-22 | Slovakia (Olympic Qualification) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | +2 |
| 2021-22 | HK Nitra (Slovak Extraliga) | 18 | 0 | 11 | 11 | +4 |
Dalibor Dvorsky. Birthdate: June 15 2005 (16y/o). My projection: Top-five 2023.
| Year | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- |
| 2021-22 | Slovakia U18 (Hlinka Gretzky Cup) | 5 | 8 | 4 | 12 | +3 |
| 2021-22 | AIK J20 (J20 Nationell) | 19 | 13 | 14 | 27 | +8 |
| 2021-22 | AIK (HockeyAllsvenskan) | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 |
Filip Mesar. Birthdate: January 3 2004 (17y/o). My projection: Second round 2022. NHL Prelim rating: B.
| Year | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- |
| 2020-21 | Slovakia U20 (World Juniors) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4 |
| 2021-22 | Slovakia U18 (Hlinka Gretzky Cup) | 5 | 2 | 6 | 8 | -2 |
| 2021-22 | HK Poprad (Slovak Extraliga) | 16 | 4 | 4 | 8 | +3 |
Slovakia will head into the upcoming 2022 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships with the four players mentioned, as well as Martin Chromiak and Peter Repcik. They’ll face the United States (December 26th – 9:30pm ET/7:30pm MT), Sweden (December 27th – 9:30pm ET/7:30pm MT), Russia (December 29th – 4:30pm ET/2:30pm MT), and Switzerland (December 30th – 7pm ET/5pm MT).
There’s also a chance that Slafkovsky and Nemec appear on Slovakia’s Olympic roster. For the Beijing Olympics, Slovakia is in Group C alongside Finland, Sweden, Lativa.
Since 2011, Slovakia’s IIHF ranking has been a rollercoaster. They got as high as 6th in the world in 2012 after they took home silver at the World Championship that year. Their lowest ranking since 2011 has been 11th in 2017 after a very poor showing at the World Championship in Paris/Cologne, where they only won one game, that came against Italy, who was relegated. In the final rankings for that tournament, Slovakia finished 14th out of 16 teams. They’ve slowly rebounded from that performance, climbing to 9th in the world from 2019-2021.
| Year | Ranking |
| 2011 | 10th |
| 2012 | 6th |
| 2013 | 8th |
| 2014 | 8th |
| 2015 | 8th |
| 2016 | 8th |
| 2017 | 11th |
| 2018 | 10th |
| 2019 | 9th |
| 2020 | 9th |
| 2021 | 9th |
Thanks to everyone who’s been reading over throughout 2021, I appreciate it. I still have plenty of World Junior content to come out this month, starting with my preview/prediction article, which should be out on Friday evening.
-Cooper.