Last week, in an interview with The Athletic, 20-year-old Montreal Canadiens right winger Juraj Slafkovský made comments that were critical of the Slovak Ice Hockey Association.
“The Slovak hockey federation, a couple of things have to change there for us to be successful again,” Slafkovský is quoted in the article. “Because I feel we got the Olympic (bronze) medal (in 2022), and people get satisfied by these things, but that was lucky because there was no NHL players. Let’s be honest, we wouldn’t have won that medal if everyone had their full squad. But we get satisfied by these little things. … We think we’re doing things the right way, but we’re not. We’re just pretending. And we are trying to sell it to the people that we’re doing things the right way by pushing these fake results.
“Obviously it’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me that I won the Olympic medal, but be honest about it.”
He further criticized how national teams are selected at the U16 and U17 levels, saying they refuse to invite players based in North America because “the people running it are scared that their own kid won’t play, or he knows this guy’s father and his kid needs to play.”
“It’s all about connections in Slovakia,” he said. “I see it, and everyone is scared to talk about it.
“Probably we need more people to work for the federation, but no one wants to work for that,” he said. “You think (Marián) Hossa wants to work for the federation? No. (Marián) Gáborík? No. It’s because of some people that are already there, they do it their own way, so they benefit from it, and not Slovak hockey.
“That’s my opinion.”
Hockey Slovakia responded with a statement that was published at Šport.cz.
“We perceive the opinions of Juraj Slafkovský as ill-considered statements of a young player,” the statement begins.
“It must have been difficult for his representative teammates from the bronze-medal team team, the coaches who selected him and the officials who gave him the opportunity to advance in his career. We are convinced that there are many passionate players, coaches and experts working in our country, on whom Slovak hockey really stands.
“We believe that in the future Juraj will communicate with the media with the responsibility of the leader of the national team.”
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