The Nashville Predators have added even more depth to their goaltending pipeline, convincing Tomas Vomacka to forego his senior season at the University of Connecticut. Vomacka has turned pro and signed his two-year, entry-level contract with the Predators.
Vomacka, 21, is a Czech goaltender that has played in the U.S. for years now, including the last three seasons at UConn. In 2020-21 he registered a .909 save percentage, going 10-11-2 in 23 appearances. Originally selected 154th overall in 2017, the 6’3″ netminder hasn’t really taken huge steps in his development just yet, but perhaps could put it all together once he hits professional hockey. The Predators obviously felt he still had enough upside to offer him this NHL contract.
The question will really be how can Vomacka even really make an impact on the Predators organization. The team has 25-year-old Juuse Saros as their starter in the NHL but spent the 11th overall pick on Yaroslav Askarov and have high hopes for him as an elite netminder. Though Askarov is not yet signed, it’s going to be very surprising to see Vomacka ever leapfrog him and become an impact goaltender for the Predators. Still, with the goalie position in particular, grabbing a bunch of lottery tickets and hoping one wins is a reasonable strategy, so he’ll enter their development system and continue to work on his game.
As a UConn fan this is a sad day. Had a nice talk with this kid on ice just before COVID last season. Preds are getting a good, big bodied goalie.
Congrats?
Is there a reason for your goofy, facetious reply? I think it’s interesting to hear from someone who’s watched a basically unknown prospect. Why waste the bytes bro?
Even worse for this kid is that the Preds have a really good goalie prospect playing for Clarkson named Ethan Haider.
If only their forward prospects were as deep as they are at goalie and defense, they wouldn’t have to keep giving ridiculous contracts to people like Duchene and Turris. Sigh.