Czech republic roster for Karjala Cup 2011

05 Nov 2011 | Petr Polák

Between November 10-13 the 2011 Karjala Cup will be held in Helsinki, Finland and Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. The biggest surprise in the nomination of the Czech republic is name of a veteran-player Petr Nedvěd.

Nedvěd is 39 year old and he will be the oldest player on the tournament. But it is not the only reason why to be surprised of his presence in the Czech national team: Although Nedvěd is a Czech-born player, he also has a Canadian passport and he played for the Team Canada in the 1993 Winter Olympics. According to the IIHF rules this was the reason why he could not wear the Czech national jersey again. Until now.

The IIHF rules are saying, that if the player is representing a club in some country for more than 4 years, he can change his nationality for the international games. Nedvěd came back from NHL to the Czech Extraliga in 2007, so there is no other obstacle for him to take on the Czech national jersey again.

"The coach Hadamczik surprised me," Nedvěd said to iDnes.cz, "I did not even know that this possibility exists. I thought I will never can play for Czechs again because of my appearance in the Team Canada and because of my age."

But as Hadamczik told to iDnes.cz, Nedvěd’s name was not the only name of a veteran in his thoughts for the nomination: "The young guys simply are not so good as that old players. I wasalso thinking about Ujčík(39), Bonk(35) and Peterek(40). Finaly only Nedvěd appears in the final nomination."

Petr Nedvěd is the current leader in points(26), goals(11) and assists(15) in the Czech Extraliga.

The Team Czech republic will wear the patches remembering the Yaroslavl catastrophe from September 2011 and the Czech national team players Karel Rachůnek, Jan Marek and Josef Vašíček in it. Karel Rachůnek’s brother Ivan takes the part in the current roster of the Czech republic for the Karjala.

The Czech republic roster for the 2011 Karjala Cup

Goalies:
Jakub Štěpánek
Jakub Kovář

Defemsemen:
Lukáš Krajíček
Marek Trončinský
Petr Čáslava
Martin Škoula
Miroslav Blaťák
Martin Ševc
Jakub Nakládal

Forwards:
Petr Hubáček
Jiří Novotný
Petr Vampola
Jakub Klepiš
Zbyněk Irgl
Petr Vrána
Aleš Kotalík
Petr Koukal
Petr Průcha
Ivan Rachůnek
Martin Adamský
Jakub Petružálek
Marek Kvapil
Petr Nedvěd