Over the course of this past season, several people asked me if I thought the Flyers would still have interest in drafting Czech forward Tomas Hyka in the 2012 NHL Draft. I don't see why not. The right winger had a fine year in the QMJHL this season.
However, I also don't think the Flyers are going to jump through hoops to get him. He'll be treated like any other player on the team's list of potential draftees. If he's there for the taking in the third round, the Flyers will consider picking him up. If there's someone higher on their list who is available, they'll take the other player.
Hyka, you may recall, fell through the cracks of the 2011 Draft. No NHL team selected the teenage winger, who appeared in 13 Czech Extraliga games in 2010-11 for BK Mlada Boleslav while starring at the Czech U20 level. He was chosen in the CHL Import draft by the QMJHL's Gatineau Olympiques and played well offensively this season, tallying 64 points (20 goals, 44 assists) in 50 games.
With their seventh round pick in the 2011 Draft, the Flyers chose Peterborough Petes' tough guy Derek Mathers over Hyka. However, the club extended a training camp invitation to Hyka and hoped to acquire him via the undrafted free agent route. As it turned out, however, Hyka still fell under the NHL's drafting rules for players from European leagues. That made him ineligible to be signed last fall without having been picked in the NHL Draft.
Before returning to Gatineau, Hyka showed off impressive speed and a nice finishing touch in the Prospects Game and early in the Flyers' preseason. Suiting up for the big club, he memorably scored a breakaway goal and launched into an exuberant celebration.
This time around, Hyka is a virtual lock to be selected somewhere in the 2012 NHL Draft. He is ranked 45th among North American skaters on Central Scouting's final rankings, which would likely place him somewhere in the second or third round of the actual Draft.
The scouting report on Hyka has not changed since last year. He still needs to add considerable strength to his small frame (5-11, 160 pounds according to Central Scouting) and still needs to improve defensively. He compensates for his lack of size with his skating and stickhandling abilities but those skills alone will not get him into the NHL on a long-term basis. That is why he is still considered something of a project.
If the Flyers had played their cards right last year, they probably could have had both Hyka (as their seventh round pick with the 206th overall selection) and Mathers (as an undrafted free agent) but what's done is done. Mathers has been signed to an entry-level contract and dressed in nine late-season AHL games for the Phantoms, compiling 26 penalty minutes. The 19-year-old enforcer will return to the OHL next season.
The Flyers do not have a 2nd-round pick in this year's draft. They originally held two selections, but one (Florida's pick via the Kris Versteeg trade) was dealt to Tampa for Pavel Kubina and the other (Los Angeles' pick via the Mike Richards trade) went to Dallas in the trade for Nicklas Grossmann.
Apart from the 20th overall pick in the first round, the Flyers currently have a third-round pick (78th overall, originally belonging to San Jose), their own 4th-round pick (111th overall), their own 5th-round pick (141st overall) and their own 7th-round pick (201st overall). They do not have a 6th-round pick, which was sent to Los Angeles in Oct 2011 in exchange for minor leaguer Stefan Legein.
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Speaking of Czech players, it was 27 years ago today that the late Miroslav "Cookie" Dvorak announced his retirement from the NHL and returned to Europe. Four years ago tomorrow (June 11, 2008), Dvorak passed away from throat cancer at age 56.
Although his career in Philadelphia was relatively brief (three seasons), the team's first player from the former communist bloc served the team well. In 1983-84, Dvorak won the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the Flyers top defenseman.
Dvorak was a 31-year-old "rookie" for the Flyers in 1982-83. A longtime star for the Czechoslovakian national team and for Ceske Budejovice, Dvorak was given permission by the communist government to enter the 1982 NHL Draft in exchange for a rather hefty transfer fee. The Flyers selected him in the third round (46th overall).
Despite his late start in North America and the fact that he could neither speak nor understand English upon his arrival to Philadelphia -- he picked up just enough along the way to speak rudimentary and badly broken English -- Dvorak was a quick learner who was usually quite effective on the ice for the Flyers.
Given to wearing suits that were already a decade out of style but which he refused to spend any money to replace, the chain-smoking and beer-guzzling Dvorak became an immediate locker room favorite. To this day, former teammates from the 1980s love to tell stories about Dvorak.
Some examples:
* One of the first times teammates ever heard Dvorak speak English came in the final year that the Flyers used the Class of 1923 Rink at University of Pennsylvania as their practice facility. Thefts were very common in the West Philadelphia neighborhood, and it was not unusual at all for players to have their cars smashed and robbed or to have unsecured valuables stolen from the building. One day, Dvorak was victimized. He ran into the locker room, angrily shouting, "Zey foe-king steal from Cookie!"
* There were very few times that the Flyers' players ever saw Mike Keenan smile or laugh but the coach couldn't hold back one time when he attempted to enforce a no-smoking policy. Keenan grabbed an unlit cigarette away from Dvorak and tossed it out the window of the team bus. Dvorak shrugged, opened his jacket and showed the coach he had an enormous carton stashed for the road trip. Keenan couldn't help but laugh along with everybody else.
* Dvorak's best friend on the team was his defense partner Brad Marsh. Apart from their chemistry on the ice as an offensive-minded (Dvorak) and defensive (Marsh) pairing, the two affable personalities were a good blend off the ice.
Every day, Dvorak rode along to practice with Marsh in his beaten up pick-up truck. The two made for quite a sight together, with Marsh sporting an old London Knights jacket that his dog had gnawed on while Dvorak arrived looking like one of the Festrunk Brothers.
"I remember the first time I met Miro at the airport, I shook his hand, and he didn't know a word of English," said Marsh in Stan Fischler's book,
Greatest Players and Moments of the Philadelphia Flyers. "That night, we roomed together after an exhibition game. I knew how to say beer in Czech (pivo), so I ordered up some beers from room service. With my dictionary, it was amazing what I could accomplish over a couple of beers."
The two defensemen were inseparable for the remainder of Dvorak's stay in North America.
In a 1999 interview in the Czech Republic, Dvorak said of Marsh, "I only wish I knew the words in English to tell him how much I appreciated all he did for me on and off the ice, but I think Brad knew. He was a great teammate and a true friend."
* When the Flyers' veterans subjected rookies Pelle Lindbergh and Bob Froese to a brutal version of the "shave" hazing in 1983, Dvorak sternly looked at the other players in the locker room. He wagged his finger and commanded "No touch Cookie!" He was left alone.
After retiring from the NHL at age 34, Dvorak returned to Europe. He spent three years playing in Germany and one final season with Ceske Budejovice before hanging up the skates in 1989.
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Brad Marsh is currently in the midst of his 90-day challenge to ride a bike across Canada in order to raise funds and awareness for the Boys and Girls Club of Canada.
The former Flyers' defenseman is
keeping a blog of his journey.
Marshy's twitter feed is @BradMarshNHL
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