5 NHLers bolster Slovak World Championship roster

In recent years, Slovakia has struggled to attract many NHL players to its World Championship roster, but things seem to be different this year. So far, five of them – Tomáš Tatar, Juraj Slafkovský, Šimon Nemec, Martin Pospíšil and Pavol Regenda – have said yes to their invitations.

This will be veteran Tatar’s seventh World Championship and the first for Pospíšil.

“This year, the participation of players from the NHL will be higher compared to previous years. Everyone we’ve contacted has confirmed their participation,” said Slovak national team GM Miroslav Šatan – himself a former longtime NHLer and a member of Slovakia’s only World Championship gold-medal team in 2002.

The Slovaks haven’t made the semifinals since 2004, which was also in Czechia. Šatan and the coaching staff led by Craig Ramsay are eager to build a roster that can again contend for a medal. Šatan and Ramsay were at the helm of Slovakia’s 2022 Olympic bronze-medal team.

“We communicated with each player several times. From the first communication, we could feel a positive attitude from everyone. Apparently, this is also because the tournament is very close to Slovakia,” Šatan told HockeySlovakia.sk.

Indeed, Slovakia will play the group stage in Ostrava, which is less than 70 kilometres (about 40 miles) from the Slovak border. All of Slovakia’s games quickly sold out when tickets went on sale.

Interestingly, tournament host Czechia has so far had difficulty attracting NHL players to its World Championship roster.

The NHL quintet joins an existing Slovak team that includes Peter Cehlarík, Marek Hrivík, Florida Panthers-bound winger Oliver Okuliar, defenseman Peter Čerešňák and goaltender Samuel Hlavaj.

As for further roster additions, Šatan said there is “a group of four to six potential names” from the ongoing Czech and Slovak league finals and the AHL. “Of course, we will also watch the NHL playoffs, where we still have two players whom we would definitely contact in the event of an early exit and wait for their decision.”

The two Slovaks in the Stanley Cup playoffs are defensemen Erik Černák and Martin Fehérváry, who play for the first-round-underdog Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals, respectively.