Klara Peslarova, Czechia's national team netminder, discusses her hockey career. Goaltender Klára Peslarová might be one of the best free agent players still available to PWHL teams, although overlooked so far in the frenzy to sign scorers like Daryl Watts and Katerina Mrazova. But to forget about the former SDHL Brynäs IF goalie who poasted a 1.76 GAA and a .935 save percentage last season would be a mistake. Peslarová also set a new record for minutes played in the 2024 Women’s World Championship (430) and came back from a serious knee injury the year before that to put up a 1.91 GAA and a .927 save percentage with Brynäs. Here is Cee Benwell's interview with Peslarová discussing her outlook on the upcoming season: YOU SUFFERED A TORN ACL AND MCL DURING A LEAGUE GAME IN 2022 BUT CAME BACK FROM IT. HOW HARD WAS THAT? I’ve never really been injured before and then this happened. It was my first real injury that meant I needed to stop playing hockey for a while. I was out 10-11 months, but I had really good support. I had really kind teammates around me, with me every single day, helping me with every single move, and being there mentally besides. Brynäs helped me a lot, they found one of the top three knee specialists so I’m really appreciative of this. I’ve grown in this as a person, and also my mental part has grown in this – all of a sudden I knew my limits, how much I can push, and all I saw in front of me was the goal. I set my goal that I want to be back after this year and participate in the full regular season and also be part of the national team and be back in the net. WHEN YOU CAME BACK, WAS IT DIFFERENT? WHAT DID YOU LEARN? Before that, I might have thought it was easy, since I was there for a long time on the national team as the #1 goalie, and after the injury, Blanka (Škodová) got the spot and watching the team playing, she was performing really well. I was like, here we have the future. It was really nice to see, but at the same time, inside I was like, I want to start; so I started to mentally prepare to come back and to recognize that nothing is for free, you need to deserve it. WHAT HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF THE PWHL SO FAR AND WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO DECLARE FOR THE DRAFT? It was tough to catch the games during our season (with the time difference), but I watched the games during the playoffs, or the highlights the next day. I paid attention during the playoffs, and it’s one of the reasons why I chose to put my name into the draft. I’ve been in Sweden for eight years and there are amazing players, European players and North American players, but I feel if I want to get better, I need to go into a better league which I feel that the PWHL is, because they have the best players from all over the world, and I would love to be part of it. DID YOU NOTICE AERIN FRANKEL DURING THE PLAYOFFS, A LITTLE BIT SMALLER GOALIE AS WELL – SHE WAS SO GOOD IN THE PLAYOFFS, DID THAT INSPIRE YOU AT ALL? I first saw her play in Denmark, and it’s nice to see another goalie who is the same height, but she can make herself bigger than she is. I got through a lot also when coaches say, you’re short, you can’t be a good goalie, you have to work hard to be faster and have good movements, but even with my 164 cm (5’ 5”) I can still be a big goalie, and that’s what Aerin Frankel proved. I like to see things from different goalies and bring it into my style or my play, I think that’s how goalies need to be, they need to be helpful to each other, specifically saying their own opinions and you take what you feel works best for you. HOW MIGHT YOU SEE YOURSELF FITTING IN WITH A TEAM, IF THERE ARE OTHER GOALIES SIGNED OR TRYING OUT? This league is already full of amazing goalies so it’s definitely hard to get in, but if I got invited, I’m 100% willing to play whatever role I get. I’m flexible, no matter what they ask me to play, I will be playing. I think you also grow as a goalie this way, I want to be there for the goalie partners, and I hope they want to be there for me. WHAT IS THAT LIKE, TO BE PARTNERS OR BACKUPS, TO CHEER FOR SOMEONE FROM THE BENCH, AND TO WORK TOGETHER IN PRACTICE? In Brynäs, I played two years with Felicia Frank, the young goalie who won the best goalie at the 2022-23 U-18 awards, winning the silver medal for Sweden. She’s going to Quinnipiac in the NCAA. So being a goalie partner with her was something new, since she was a young goalie but very talented. It was fun to help her and I like that she really listened and wanted to develop, but she also had her own opinions on the situation, so it was also good to see how she saw a situation. Like maybe she was right in a situation and I’m wrong, but she corrected me and that’s how you are growing and building your relationship. And this is something that I really want my team to have, to be helpful and to be there for the goalies. WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON TEAM CZECHIA AND THE REASONS FOR ALL OF THE SUCCESS THAT THEY’VE HAD? The reason that Czech players leave (the country) is that we don’t have a good league here so we leave at a young age and develop outside of Czech, and once we get all the players together, we have experiences from all over the world; we have players from the NCAA, PWHL, SDHL, Finnish League, Swiss League, so when we get together we are more than just Czech. The success we’ve had in past years, the players are getting experiences outside from different countries so even though we are from a small country we are still a big player. SO IF AND WHEN YOU COME TO THE PWHL, YOU WILL SEE PLAYERS FROM THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, FROM THE SDHL, AND SOME YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE PLAYED AGAINST BEFORE. WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT FACING SOME OF THE BEST PLAYERS? It’s going to be a really good challenge, and I love challenges. It will be so much fun to have those really good players in practice, but also as opponents in a game, so I’m really looking forward to that because playing in the World Championships is always reallly fun because you’re facing the best from their countries. The PWHL is offering this, so I’m looking forward if I get the chance to play. WHAT DOES YOUR SUMMER LOOK LIKE? Nothing changes in my plans, even though I haven’t been drafted. I’m working on my camps, together with my brother and a couple of players from the national team, then I’ll move to Sweden where I’ll be part of a group that is going to be preparing for next season’s PWHL, since I have no club at the moemnt, i’ll prepare with them. Then I’ll see if I get in touch with a team or if I need to start to look for a new team, but I still believe there is still some hope, and I’m all in. The full interview is available on the PWHL Puck Drop podcast [https://youtu.be/WOU2NtYhPaU?si=vOBtTD5J7Sl0z3tE].
