The Czech Mates: A Tale of Beer and Brotherhood

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CLEVELAND, OH – NOVEMBER 09: Laval Rocket Montreal Canadiens Michal Moravcik David Sklenicka (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Montreal Canadiens prospects Michal Moravcik and David Sklenicka’s whirlwind year of hockey from Plzen of the Czech league to the Laval Rocket of the AHL.

When Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin went looking for defensive help over the off-season, he spent much of the summer touring the European countryside looking for the next Mark Streit or Raphael Diaz. Parched after scouring the continent in search of hidden gems, Bergevin decided to stop in the quaint city of Plzen, in the Czech Republic, to rest his weary feet and quench his traveler’s thirst.

Luckily for Marc, he chose the right place to stop, as Plzen just so happens to be the birthplace of Pilsner beer, created in Plzen by a transplanted Bavarian named Josef Groll in 1842.

It also happens to be the home of the HC Skoda Plzen hockey team, another well-known local icon. Established way back in 1929, HC Plezn has dressed some notable players over the years, including goalie Tuukka Rask, forwards Martin Straka and Petr Sykora as well as defenceman Jaroslav Spacek, who played for the Canadiens from 2009 until 2012 and now serves as an assistant coach on Plzen.

Perhaps it was Spacek’s sage advice, or perhaps it was the beer, but either way, Bergevin was seeing double that day and decided to take not one, but two fliers on a pair of promising, young Plzen blueliners named Michal Moravcik and David Sklenicka. A matching set of Czech mates, if you will.

LAVAL, QC – NOVEMBER 13: Montreal Canadiens Laval Rocket Michal Moravcik David Sklenicka (Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

And the similarities don’t end there, folks.

In addition to the fact they’re both defencemen and hail from the same team, they also put up eerily similar numbers last season, with Moravcik totalling 16 points in 52 games while Sklenicka countered with 14 points in 49 games. And just for good measure, they’re both left-handed shots.

So what do you do when faced with the task of trying to recruit two very similar players?
For Bergevin, the answer was simple: sign them to identical contracts, both on the same day.

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And that he did, with Moravcik and Sklenicka each earning a two-year, two-way deal for identical sums of money, and both contracts coming with a “European Assignment Clause” loophole written in.

So how are the two defencemen from the same team with the same contract doing, you might ask? Not surprisingly, they’re doing about the same actually, with Sklenicka having dressed for a couple of games more while Moravcik holds a two-point to one lead in the first annual Pilsner beer league scoring race.

At 6’4” and 215 pounds, Moravcik portrays as more of a stay-at-home defenceman, although there are signs of offensive life, as evidenced in his post-season performance last year with Plzen in the Czech Extraliga, where he collected seven points in ten games with an impressive +5 rating.

To compare his style of play, think of a poor man’s Shea Weber. Or at least a middle class Jordie Benn.

LAVAL, QC, CANADA – NOVEMBER 16: Montreal Canadiens David Sklenicka Michal Moracvik Laval Rocket (Photo by Stephane Dube /Getty Images) /

Sklenicka, meanwhile, is the smaller and faster of the two, standing 5’11” and going 180 and change. Harder to pigeonhole in terms of style, perhaps the best current comparison would be Victor Mete. Sklenicka does not appear to have tremendous offensive upside, but skates and moves the puck well.

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Although both players have outs in their deals which allow them to return to Europe should they choose, the fact that their AHL wages are probably on par with their old Extraliga paycheques, coupled with the cross-town lure of NHL fame and fortune, should keep their hopes high and their home-sickness low, at least for the foreseeable future. And because they’re inked to two-year deals, one or both could leave early this season and yet still be under contract through 2019-20. Smart move.

In the meantime, both continue to see regular duty with the Rocket as they adjust to a different team, and a different rink size, and a different language and for that matter, a whole different world. The mere fact that they have avoided demotion to the ECHL, where Montreal currently house two defencemen, attests to their development and skill levels, and the fact that they log regular ice time under demanding Head Coach Joel Bouchard attests to their character and willingness to compete.

Michal Moravcik and David Sklenicka are entering their third straight season as teammates, which is not unheard of, even in today’s transient, free-agent era of professional hockey.

The bizarre part is that while their bond and relationship hasn’t changed, everything else has. New team, new coaches, new arena, new locker room, new everything. And yet they’re holding up.

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With any luck, the two Czech mates will soon catch the cross-town bus together to the big show. Seems only right, considering they’re from the land of beer and the Habs play in the house of beer.

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