Between 1996 and 2012, Czechia won 11 medals – including six gold – at 17 World Championships. During the same period of time, the nation of 10 million people also won a gold and a bronze at four Winter Olympics. Since then, nothing, and three months ago in Beijing came a worst-ever ninth-place finish at the Winter Olympics.

Changes followed. Leading the team is a new coaching staff led by Finn Kari Jalonen and an overhauled roster. As is often the case in Olympic years, the rosters for the two main men’s international tournaments look quite different. Of the 25 players named to the preliminary roster, nine are returning from Beijing and only eight from last year's World Championship in Riga.

The Czechs are relying more than usual on their domestic Extraliga, where nine of the 25 played this season. The rest is a patchwork of players from several European leagues and seven NHLers, although as is often the case, that number could increase as teams get eliminated from the playoffs.

Goaltending

The goaltending trio is young and has no World Championship experience, but it also could be promising.

Karel Vejmelka would appear to have the inside track as far as being the starter. The 25-year-old made news with a 46-save shutout for the Arizona Coyotes in November, tying an NHL record for most saves in a goalie’s first career shutout. Vejmelka saw plenty of rubber this season, playing 52 games for the lowly Coyotes, who were often under siege. Vejmelka also performed strongly in two pre-tournament games against Switzerland and Finland, surrendering one goal on 45 shots.

Lukas Dostal, also a Kometa Brno product, might get a shot as well. The 21-year-old also made his NHL debut this season, playing four games for the Anaheim Ducks, but spent most of the season with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. Although this is his first major tournament with the men’s national team, Dostal performed well at the U18 and U20 levels, and led the 2019 World Juniors in save percentage.

Marek Langhamer of Ilves Tampere, who played two games for the Coyotes between 2016 and 2018, is also available. What might give Langhamer an edge is that he played a bit for the Czech national team this season, whereas Dostal didn’t get into a pre-tournament game.

Defence

There is a wide age range on defence from 32-year-old Tomas Kundratek to 18-year-old David Jiricek, who is projected to be a first-round NHL Draft pick this summer. Jiricek only played in 29 games this season for Skoda Plzen due to a knee injury suffered at the World Juniors in Edmonton, but played in several pre-tournament games and obviously seems fit to go. It’ll be interesting to see how much Jalonen uses him.

Kundratek is one of three defencemen returning from the Olympics, the others being David Musil and David Sklenicka.

Two NHLers are on the roster so far: Radim Simek of the San Jose Sharks and Filip Hronek of the Detroit Red Wings. Both have regularly answered the call to play for Czechia in the past, with Hronek playing in his fourth and Simek in his third World Championship. Simek played in two pre-tournament games but Hronek didn’t get into any.

Two Czech defencemen still remain in the Stanley Cup playoffs: Radko Gudas of the Florida Panthers and Jan Rutta of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Whether either of them joins depends on how their teams fare in their first-round series.

Forwards

Three NHLers highlight this group of Czech forwards: Tomas Hertl of San Jose, Dominik Simon of Anaheim and Jakub Vrana of Detroit. This is Hertl’s first appearance for the Czech national team since the 2015 Worlds in Prague. At the time, he was 21 and played a limited role. Coming off a 30-goal, 64-point NHL campaign, the now 28-year-old will be expected to lead the offence this time.

But he won’t be alone. Hertl will be joined by a pair of 36-year-olds, winger Roman Cervenka and centre David Krejci, who were Czechia’s top two scorers at the Olympics with five and four points, respectively.

Other Olympic holdovers include Jiri Smejkal, Michael Spacek, Matej Stransky and Hynek Zohorna.

Perhaps surprisingly, the top scorer all season for the Czech national team has been 21-year-old Edmonton Oilers prospect Matej Blumel of Dynamo Pardubice, with 11 points in 17 games. A goal-scoring winger, Blumel is appearing in his second World Championship.

Czech forwards that could potentially become available if their NHL teams are knocked out of the playoffs include David Pastrnak, Tomas Nosek, Ondrej Palat, David Kampf, Ondrej Kase, Radek Faksa, Martin Necas and Filip Chytil.

Coaching

Two months ago, Kari Jalonen became the first foreign-born coach of the Czech or Czechoslovak men’s national team since Canadian-born Mike Buckna in the 1930s and 40s. The new Finnish coach will look for similar success, as Buckna led Czechoslovakia to its first World Championship gold medal in 1947.

Jalonen, 62, is new to the Czech national team but previously coached Lev Prague to a berth in the 2013/14 KHL finals. Internationally, Jalonen led Finland to a World Junior Championship silver medal in 2001 and a World Championship silver medal in 2016. While Czech teams are typically known for a run-and-gun, offensive style, we might expect to see them play more of a “Finnish-style” defensive system under Jalonen.

One of Jalonen’s assistants is Martin Erat, in his first senior-level coaching job since retiring as a player two years ago.

Projected Results

Following the Olympic disappointment, the coaching change and some tinkering with the roster, there is a strong desire at home to see this team do well. As has always previously been the case, Czechia should advance to at least the quarter-finals. There will be stiff competition in Group B from the USA, Sweden and host Finland, but also beatable teams in Latvia, Norway, Great Britain and Austria. Of course, beatable doesn’t mean pushover.

Once in the quarter-finals, the tournament becomes a single-knockout event and almost anything can happen. The Czechs will want to set themselves up to be in the best possible position heading into that round.