Quick Evaluation: Lukas is an elusive play maker who has excellent puck skills and agility. He has a quick release that he uses equally well to set up teammates in the slot or to fire bullets that consistently hit the net and make the goalies make saves. He is very slippery in 1 on 1 situations and has the ability to find the quiet areas in the high slot.
Lukas Svejkovsky (4.25 Star Amateur Rating, NHL Grade — C+) Forward
(1) Brain – Lukas thinks the game like a shooter. He’s good at finding the soft areas off of a cycle and he’s good at locating his linemates in the high slot when there is a breakdown. There are times when he can become impatient by activating too early as an F3, but we like his enthusiasm and offensive instincts.
(2) Vision & Poise – Creative offensive player who plays the game with his head up anticipating his next option. He can make plays through the neutral zone with speed and opposing defenseman back off the lines early and quickly. He has the touch to hit the middle drive on the tape, the vision to locate the second wave of the attack and the poise to take the ice / space that he has created.
(3) Feet – Very good straight line speed and deceptive agility that he uses to make defenders miss. He is accelerates quickly out of power turns with an excellent cross under and can create space in tight areas.
(4) Compete & Effort – Lukas can cheat in the defensive zone, but he forechecks hard to create turnovers and works very hard to be an effective backchecker. He cuts the ice in half using body positioning while having an active stick taking away easy passing options.
(5) Contact or Physicality – Lukas plays a hard aggressive game and does not shy away from contact or traffic. He protects the puck well along the walls, can extend offensive zone time and makes plays to both the high slot or his defensemen.
(6) Release – Quick accurate release. We’ve noted multiple times that Lukas has a rocket off of a curl and drag move in the high slot.
(7) One Timer Ability – We have not seen Lukas attempt enough one timers to say with confidence. We have seen him attempt cross body one timers on net front passes and he consistently gets good wood on it.
(8) Body Language – He plays the type of game that can rub opponents the wrong way. He may not have a lot of penalty minutes, but opponents seem to yap at him quite often. We see this a real testament to his competitiveness and enjoy seeing it.
(9) Special Teams Potential – Lukas has the puck skills and first touch to be a power play option. This is not an effort comment, but we feel if he improves his attention to detail he speed, active stick and anticipation could make a very high level penalty killer.
(10) Intangibles – He is a late 2001 and through three years of junior hockey Lukas is on his third team. We do not think this is a big deal because to us Medicine Hat is place where he feels comfortable. We expect him to be drafted in the middle rounds, attend an NHL Development Camp and return to have a very productive 2020-21 season with the Tigers.