With the 2022 World Juniors now less than two weeks away, hockey federations are in the process of trimming down or setting their rosters for the tournament. Slovakia is the latest to do so as Dennik Sport’s Matej Deraj reports (Twitter link) that their roster for the tournament now stands as follows:
Goaltenders
Patrik Andrisik
Tomas Bolo
Simon Latkoczy
Defensemen
Denis Bakala
Simon Becar
Simon Groch
Viliam Kmec
David Natny
Rayen Petrovicky
Maxim Strbak
Adam Stripai
Boris Zabka
Forwards
Jakub Demek (VGK)
Dalibor Dvorsky
Roman Faith
Samuel Honzek
Maros Jedlicka
Matej Kaslik
Jakub Kolenic
Lubomir Kupco
Michael Laurencík
Martin Misiak
Oleksij Myklucha
Libor Nemec
Servac Petrovsky (MIN)
Peter Repcik
Oliver Stumpel
Adam Sykora (NYR)
Earlier this month, Slovakia made history as the first two selections in the draft were from there in Montreal’s Juraj Slafkovsky and New Jersey’s Simon Nemec while Montreal also picked up Filip Mesar later in the first round. Notably, none of those players will be on the roster as their NHL teams expressed a desire for them to focus on getting ready for training camp. Several other countries will be in the same situation as their rosters are released in the coming days.
There are still some players of note on this Slovak squad, highlighted by Sykora who was picked at the back of the second round by the Rangers earlier this month. Petrovsky was a sixth-rounder by the Wild in that same draft while Demek was a 2021 fourth-rounder. Dvorsky is also one to keep an eye on as early projections have him in the mix for being a top-five selection in 2023.
The Slovaks will still have a handful of cuts to make barring injuries but have some time to do so as the tournament, which was canceled in late December, will now run from August 9th through the 20th.
Do they really need to do this tournament this close to training camps opening up? Just let it go until December.
Gotta love Roman Faith!!! I bet he is a Catholic