Basic Player Overview
2020/21 Team: HC Kometa Brno (ELH)
Position: Defenseman
Height: 185 cm / 6’1″
Weight: 78 kg / 172 lbs
Handedness: Left
Introduction
Stanislav Svozil is a young Czech defender who is one of the best prospects available for the 2021 NHL Draft. He’s playing for Kometa Brno in Czech Extraliga. He made his debut as a 16-years-old there and spent nearly 12 minutes on the ice. Only Jan Myšák (MTL) and Karel Plášek (VAN) averaged higher time-on-ice that season as juniors in men. His point-production on this level is definitely as bright as he would imagine, but he’s still learning how to play responsibly. Last he was a full-time junior-player in 2018/2019 and he scored 13 goals and picked up 29 points in 17 games.
Skating
Svozil is not the best skater in the world, not the best one in his draft-year or even the best one among 2002-born defenders. But in at least one thing he’s elite.
His bottom part of the body is pretty strong, and he can use it in skating. To be precise, he’s able to put all his weight onto one leg and lift the other one from the ground. He’s able to gain speed and dangle around the opponents. It’s not an often thing to see but he’s tremendously good at it.
In this transition, you can see it better. Focus on that little move in the neutral zone. Yes, it did not end up that well as previously, but he crossed the blue line and made an opportunity for his team to gain possession in the offensive zone even though being hit.
When he improves his skating, he will gain a lot of confidence and that will be seen especially when he will be on the puck. This is the part of his game he languishes the most now. His passes are great, strong – but only when he’s confident or he has room around himself. If he does a couple of nice plays (could be only easy passes), he’s then the best player on the ice, he believes in himself. If not, he’s not in the “right mood” he makes these craps.
He nearly fell down, then he made a terrible pass through the forthcoming attacker.
But on the other hand, there is a promising sign in terms of skating. His footwork and edgework are really impressive. This is the proof that he can be a real stud in powerplays as a quarterback. He can fake the shot or pass to the side, the only real issue in this clip is that he should have shot earlier.
And another one – nice fake move, then cuts back and put the puck to the net.
Shot
Svozil has a little bit of above-average shot of 2021 Draft eligible defenders. Like a lot of any other young defensemen, Svozil’s slapshot didn’t exist two years ago. When he entered the next stage of hockey, men’s level, he gained muscles and realized that slapshot is more powerful and sometimes it’s just the worth of at least trying.
And he has a strong one, as you can see in this clip. He decided to go with a hard slapshot and didn’t react to the player falling down in front of him, so he hit him. From his reaction, it hurt.
In this clip, we can see a not ideal shot. But focus on what is happening before. Nice pick-up, great footwork, weight put from the left leg to the right leg and back, he had an open line around the defenseman for the shot but the puck slid a bit too much to the left and that’s why he wasn’t able to produce harder shot attempt.
What he’s doing well and often is sliding around the net and trying to put the puck behind the goalie. No matter which side, he’s able to turn left or right superbly and also at high speed. The more faster he goes, the more dangerous for the goalkeeper it is.
Stick play
This is one of the parts in the game where coaches want players to improve the most. Juniors often have stick only for dekes, shots, and passes. All in all, they use it simply just in the offense. When they come to men’s level, they are suddenly lost in their own zone. But because Svozil is playing pro-hockey for the second season right now, he is pretty good in closing gaps between him and attacking player with his stick as well as in making turnover thanks to these types of plays.
It’s about watching most of Svozil’s games and then you will see his improvement. He’s still making some mistakes but his decision-making is far better than it was a year ago.
To show you how he can use his stick, watch this clip.
He outsmarts much older opponents. He sticks to his position and two players just go into his „right-defender“ zone. That’s why these stick plays look so easy. After the second one, he gets the puck on his blade but he doesn’t have it under control 100% so he decided to use his body instead of his stick – right decision. When the puck calmed itself a bit, he sends it along the boards, and a teammate on the other side can rush into the counter-attack.
Talking about his body and protecting the puck, when he does it in U20, he looks unbeatable.
One more clip from U20 friendly game against Slovakia in the summer. He backchecks Slovak forward, both were about the same pace but Svozil uses his stick to not allow him to go in the middle of the zone or in front of the goalie. The second time he uses his stick is as he pushes the puck to the boards, then uses his body and makes a turnover with his teammate.
Not that bright side
But of course, there is a dark side. Since is not that bad, I’ll call it “not that bright” rather. Next clip as an example. Sometimes it’s so hard to see confident Stanislav Svozil on the ice. When he stepped up into to men’s league, he wasn’t dominant and he was learning how to play senior hockey. It was tough, of course, but he improved himself and he was slowly starting to do things precisely. He fell off his exquisite junior style of playing and stopped doing those risky and cool plays. It might not be about confidence but about trying to do everything right.
Now, this is slightly over. He doesn’t play irresponsibly but he’s trying to make better just than safe play. The following clip is a perfect example. He was the first man on the puck in the corner and I believe he saw that easy play of just moving the puck slowly behind the net where would have been his teammate with quite a lot of space around him. It was probably too easy for him so he chose a turn but he was caught in a moment between two attackers so he had to throw the puck along the board. He has an opportunity to pass the puck into the middle of the zone, there was an open player but it was too risky for Svozil-type-of-game.
The next one is a classic situation of a young player in pro-hockey. He was hungry to get the puck on his stick, even though he lost his position. Yes, it happened so quickly, and this is that type of decision you made a mistake once or twice and for the third time you know it’s better to stay where you are.
The puck went behind the net and Svozil slides there as well. He should have seen his teammate is closer to the puck and he’s in the battle with an opponent who’s getting there as well. He left the position in front of the net, puck went there and another forward was alone and the first one to be able to get him to the net.
Draft Rankings
Preseason
Recruit Scouting: #19
Future Consideration: #26
Neutral Zone: #12
Consolidated Ranking: #18
Smaht Scouting: #22
Statistics
Expected round of selection
It’s too early to predict the final draft order, well, it’s pretty undoable to guess correctly, but as all those draft rankings that have been made so far, it seems like Svozil is a first-round talent. And he actually is. He’s probably not a TOP-10 candidate, but everything from there to the 32nd spot is very likely for him.
Stanislav Svozil is a two-way defenseman who is extremely good in his own zone at this age. He can be a great TOP-4 defender in NHL one day.
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