Slovak Ice Hockey Association: No KHLers at the World Championships

Following a meeting this week, the executive committee of the Slovak Ice Hockey Association announced that, for the second year in a row, the team’s roster for the IIHF World Championship will not include players from the KHL.

In its statement, the executive committee began by stating that “every hockey player who owns a Slovak passport and has the required performance has the right to represent Slovakia at international events.”

“However,” it continued, “due to the fact that the Slovaks currently working in the KHL have for various reasons – be it health, personal, family or other – not been available to the national team in preparation for the peak of the season, the executive committee of the Slovak Ice Hockey Association and the Slovak national team consider this topic closed for the 2024 World Championship.”

In other words, the official reason KHL players won’t be on the team is because none of them have played or practiced with the national team at international events all season.

“The executive committee believes that the coaches will be able to put together the strongest possible team, which will delight fans at the World Championship this May in the Czech Republic, make them forget the differences of opinion in society, and unite the nation as it has done many times in the past.”

In 2022, the first World Championship that excluded the teams from Russia and Belarus, the Slovak team in Finland included goaltender Patrik Rybár of Spartak Moscow and winger Adam Liška of Severstal Cherepovets. Both of those players continue with those clubs to this day.

According to eliteprospects.com, other Slovaks currently playing in the KHL include goalie Adam Húska, defensemen Michal Čajkovský, Martin Gernát, Christián Jaroš and Mislav Rosadič, and forwards Michal Krištof and Tomáš Jurčo. All of those players have represented Slovakia at major international events in the past.

During the past two seasons, most top-level national teams have, either formally or informally, excluded KHL players from their rosters.

At last year’s World Championship in Tampere and Riga, there were 17 KHL players present. Of those, 15 played for Kazakhstan and two for Slovenia.