Slovak defenseman Luka Radivojevič, who is projected to be a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, has elected to skip next week’s Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Edmonton.

The reason? He wants to make Örebro HK’s A-team in the Swedish Hockey League and doesn’t want to miss any of the team’s training camp, which starts soon. Unlike in North America, where professional hockey teams don’t start their training camps until September, things get started a lot earlier in Europe – teams are already playing pre-season games by the second week in August. The 17-year-old son of former NHL right winger Branko Radivojevič has spent the past two seasons with the Swedish club and played nine SHL games last season.

Radivojevič played in last summer’s Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Trenčín, Slovakia as a 16-year-old, recording five points – all assists – in four games for the Slovaks, who finished winless.

“We’ve respected his situation. We want him to make the (Örebro) team. It’s better for us too. We’re saving him for the (U18) World Championship. We will give other defensemen a chance. The Hlinka Gretzky Cup is not only about results,” Slovak youth national team manager Roman Sýkora was quoted in a tweet by Slovak journalist Matej Deraj.

Most participating teams do prioritize the IIHF U18 World Championship in April, viewing the Hlinka Gretzky Cup as the first of several preparation events of the season. The USA doesn’t even use players from the National Team Development Program, instead sending what is essentially a U18 B-team. Sweden and Finland usually send strong teams but top prospects are sometimes sent instead to the World Junior Summer Showcase, which runs almost concurrently.

Canada is obviously a big exception to this since its best U18 players are usually unavailable in the spring due to the Canadian Hockey League playoffs. Czechia and Slovakia, the summer tournament’s traditional co-hosts, usually take the Hlinka Gretzky Cup quite seriously as well. Surely the Slovaks would prefer to have Radivojevic at this event and might be a bit more bothered by his choice if they were playing at home.

Slovakia currently has 28 players in camp for its U18 team and should name its Hlinka Gretzky Cup roster shortly. The team is playing a pair of exhibition games against Ukraine this week in Piešťany and plans to fly overseas on Tuesday, July 30. Slovakia’s first tournament game is on August 5 against Sweden.