Patrik Polivka, who will be the last of his breed in major junior hockey creases across North America, sneaked in under the wire.
The Canadian Hockey League鈥檚 ban on European goaltenders, announced Tuesday by the CHL, will be phased in and will not affect Victoria Royals starter Polivka from the Czech Republic.
All current European goaltenders in the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior League will be grandfathered and can complete their junior careers with their CHL clubs. Polivka falls into that category.
But beginning in 2014, European goaltenders will not be eligible for selection in the annual CHL import draft. In this year鈥檚 import draft, to be held July 3, goaltenders can only be selected in the first round as a phase-in.
Each CHL team is allowed two non-North American import players on the roster, which after 2014 will only be only forwards and defencemen.
鈥淔rom a business standpoint with a local team, you want the best players you can have for your fan base to follow. And you鈥檙e going to bristle against anything that goes against that,鈥� said Royals GM Cam Hope.
鈥淏ut like anything, it鈥檚 a balancing act. But at the level of the people making this decision, they have the best interests of the sport [in sa国际传媒] in mind. If those are the rules, we will play within them. But it doesn鈥檛 affect us with Patrik [Polivka], who would be grandfathered.鈥�
After allowing the most goals against in the WHL in 2011-12, the Royals looked to address that problem by taking Polivka with the 14th overall pick in the first round of the 2012 CHL import draft. The native of Plzen appeared in 53 regular-season games for Victoria in 2012-13 and went 28-16-5 in recording a 3.24 goals-against average and .894 save percentage with two shutouts. The former Czech national U-17, U-18 and U-19 goaltender will return to the sa国际传媒 capital for his 19-year-old season.
The CHL move is seen as one to protect Canadian goalies. Three of the four starting goaltenders in the recent 2013 Memorial Cup national championship tournament in Saskatoon were from Europe.
CHL president David Branch said the decision was reached because one of the CHL鈥檚 main objectives is to develop North American-born players and, with 60 teams, there are a limited number of goaltending jobs.
Like many European creasemen, Polivka is a quick-reaction, or twitch-save, goalie who treats each shot uniquely and responds accordingly. The complaint against Canadian goaltenders is that they are over-coached in youth hockey and becoming a sort of mono-culture that reacts to shots in pre-determined fashion, such as always going into the butterfly position on low shots.
Even the U.S. seems to have moved ahead in the crease with the likes of Craig Anderson, Ryan Miller, Jonathan Quick, Ben Bishop and Cory Schneider. It is perhaps telling that none of the three Vezina Trophy finalists for this season鈥檚 NHL top goaltender award are Canadians 鈥� Antti Niemi, Sergei Bobrovsky or Anderson.
鈥淚t seems to wax and wane 鈥� it used to be goalies from Quebec. Maybe the truth of it is that it鈥檚 just a fluke. I鈥檓 not sure there鈥檚 much science behind it,鈥� said Hope.
Yet, even if NHLers again play in the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi, goaltending is expected to be one of the glaring issues for sa国际传媒.
