Jan Bohac waiting for his chance in Czech Elite league

By Ivana Paulova
Fans of the Ottawa Senators have probably asked themselves several times who this 2000 3rd round pick (the 87th position) is. let me introduce him to you. He is a guy named Jan Bohac (6’2″, 198lb) a former player of the Czech team Slavia Praha. He has a phenomenal work rate and is a very assiduous player. You may say his physical as well as psychological aspects are ideal for a central player in the NHL. He is said to be a bit slim, so putting on weight should also bring more confidence to his play.

Like many hockey players he started at an early age. He was born in Tabor a town in the south of the Czech Republic. At the age of 15 he was faced with a big decision: either he could play for Ceské Budejovice (Vaclav Nedorost plays there) or he could go to Prague. What a choice! But he made it! After deliberating for two days he made the move to Prague. Now he is a confident and mature player; with development he may well be a future star.

Jan did not even go to Ottawa for the training camp because of an agreement made between Slavia and Ottawa. The reason was very simple. Jan is still very young with little probability of making the first team so his only choice would be playing lower league in North America or returning back home. Here it becomes complicated because Ottawa wanted him to improve his style of playing and not to learn the new style of North America, so he stayed at home. But in the Czech Republic the season starts in the first week of September so he would miss out about 8 rounds and it would be hard for him to make his way to Slavia’s first team. So you see it was not easy to make the choice between staying at home and going to North America. Apart from the fact that going through the training camp of Ottawa could be very helpful and enriching, it was a clever decision to stay in the Czech Republic.

For more than a month he was sick so now he is still just gathering the strength he lost. He is still just getting back into the game but he will play regularly soon.

His style of play is unique and so it needs to be maintained and improved not changed. He has a sense for technical play. He has very good feet and good stickhandling abilities and there are many occasions where he uses these attributes effectively. His weaker side is the final part, which is the scoring. He needs to work on that but he also needs a bit of luck as well. Luck is what makes good players outstanding. He is not the type of player that skates and hits the opposing player or looks for fights. He does not like the rough stuff but he is learning to cope with it. His preference for play is a style which uses skill not brute force. The technical style of play fits him well. He has good passes and decision making and of course his great height allows him to draw out the opposition defender and create space for his teammates.

He does not have any problem with his team mates but he is not the dominant type of player as for example is Jiri Dopita. Jan admires stars like Jagr for all he achieved and his favourite book is about Jaromir Jagr. Jan considers as his greatest success the winning of the gold medal at the under-20 Championship in Sweden this year. He leaves his future open and waits for his chance.