Czechia Junior Academy
Jakub Seidl (D, R, 6’1″, 178, Bili Tygri Liberec, 10/20/2007)
Comments: Jakub is a smooth and efficient skater, in this game his feet were his best tool. He did not stop moving, either getting up the ice and joining the rush, moving along the blue line or joining the offensive zone play by activating from the point. This is evident multiple times in the first period, he walks the line to allow spacing for his forwards or drops down the wall to give his forwards options and create 5 man offensive play. He doesn’t play big but he does a nice job of combining his feet with his stick to pester offensive players. At 22:11 of the game recording you can see some good examples of Jakub combining his feet with his hands to limit offensive chances. He gets stick on puck to take away a scoring chance than continues to the corner containing the player and finishing. You can also see one of the areas I’d like to see him improve his game. Thats his physicality and strength, when Jakub has bad body position he gets out muscled off pucks and loses 5050 puck battles. In this clip he has good body and a nice pin but loses body position and allows his guy to walk to the net. I was impressed by the simplicity in Jakub’s game he is constantly moving to create options for his teammates and when the his team is structured around him he makes good reads and head mans the puck. He uses his feet to buy himself a few extra seconds to make a play but when his team isn’t structured around him he often just advances the puck over the blue line to nobody. The last play of the first period showcases this, he throws the puck into the neutral zone to the wall that his winger is yet to get to. I would like to see him use his feet to extend the play, either buying time to make a clean pass to his winger or using his feet to get the redline.
