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Slovak Extra League Review
Written by: Daniel Kysel on 05/16/2001 
Stats of selected players:
P.Rybar Regular season 55 GP 3320 min. 2.00 GAA .927 SAV
Playoffs 4 GP 248 min. 3.00 GAA .878 SAV
Name GP G A Pts +/- PIM
J.Plch Regular season 53 35 44 79 +59 38
Playoffs 10 5 5 10 +4 4
R.Sechny R.s. 53 24 46 70 +27 64
P. 10 9 10 19 +14 10
P.Fabus R.s. 52 31 22 53 +13 94
P. 14 4 6 10 +4 60
T.Surovy R.s. 53 22 28 50 +3 30
P. 6 2 1 3 +2 4
R.Pukalovic R.s. 51 15 35 50 +45 20
P. 10 3 3 6 +2 6
Z.Ciger R.s. 53 17 32 49 +17 22
P. 8 6 3 9 +4 16
L.Sabol R.s. 48 24 20 44 -2 18
P. 3 1 1 2 +1 0
M.Kulha R.s. 47 23 12 35 -4 58
P. 8 3 4 7 +2 4
T.Nadasdi R.s. 42 5 9 14 -10 120
P. 3 0 2 2 +2 2
J.Tabacek R.s. 44 8 5 13 -18 62
P. 3 1 2 3 -2 0
Pavol Rybar (G, 12/10/71, 5'11" 186 lb, Slovan) leading goalie of the
league and goalie of national team. Quick reflexes, solid use of both
hands but terrible use of his stick and goes down on ice too often. He
was shaded by Rovnianek, Simonovic and Murin in the playoffs.
Fortunately Slovak leagues offer solid young prospects who could replace
him on national team within few years e.g. Kostur (80), Krizan (80),
Hala (79), Pisar (81).
Robert Pukalovic (D, 28/10/66, 6'2" 195 lb, Zvolen) Slovak Ray Bourque, still very valuable team player and big shooter.
Jan Plch (RW, 16/08/74, 5'11" 178 lb, Zvolen) leading scorer of regular season. Good and speed skater, excellent puckhandler, natural scorer. Big prospect for European top leagues (Czech, Swedish, Finnish) but not the NHL caliber. He does not like too physical games.
Richard Sechny (C, 19/10/71, 6'5" 230 lb, Zvolen) second best scorer of regular season and top scorer of playoffs. Richard dominated in the league, especially in the playoffs. Solid skater for his size, soft hands, excellent passer, uses his long reach to his advantage. In spite of his excellent size Richard prefers technical style and that is why do not expect to see him in North America.
Zdeno Ciger (W/C, 19/10/69, 6'1" 185 lb, Slovan) Many people expected that captain Slovan would lead his team to the Slovak championship but Slovan was blown out by Trencin in semi-finals. Zdeno miss leader's ability and is not a strong personality. In spite of above said, Zdeno is still able to play on NHL. He is not far to sign a contract with Minnesota.
Young guns
The best rookie of the league was Tomas Surovy in my opinion. I mentioned him as well as other juniors on Extraliga in my previous articles. Now some facts about the other ones, over-aged prospects.
Peter Fabus (C/W, 15/07/79, 6'1" 195 lb, Trencin) - very good selection of Phoenix in last year draft. Excellent progress. He captained Trencin to the finals. Hard working player with good scoring ability. Valuable in the power plays and effective penalty killer, strong forechecker. He lifts teammates with his style of play, good hockey sense and very good attitude and work ethic. He might skate in the NHL shortly.
Martin Kulha (C/W, 07/08/76, 6'2" 193 lb, Slovan/Poprad) Though his stats are not such amazing he is very valuable forward. Good size and strength, strong on his skates, good attitude. Martin works hard around the net, is aggressive to the puck and plays well without the puck. I like he works hard all the time. He played pretty well on national team and scored important goals but was not nominated on world championship.
Tomas Nadasdi (D, 14/05/80, 6'0" 189 lb, Kosice) Bronze medallist from WJC in Winnipeg two years ago. He added some pounds and plays more physical style. Tomas is good skater with speed and balance, reads the play well, passes puck up to forwards quickly. He is effective on powerplays, has hard and accurate slapshot. From time to time he plays too sophisticated (European) style. However he played simple style on national team and belonged to best players.
Jan Tabacek (D, 07/04/80, 6'0" 170 lb, Martin) Amazing skater with killing speed and acceleration. By the way he is a winner of speed competition during all-star exhibition. Jan is offensive defenseman, able to play as winger. Big and accurate shooter, very good hockey sense, good work ethic. He needs to add some muscles to be more aggressive around his net. He played several excellent games on national team as well.
Lubomir Sabol (C, 11/04/80, 5'11" 182 lb, Kosice) Almost nobody knew him
in last October. He did not play either one game on senior league before
this season. Lubo was a leading scorer of the league in the mid-season.
Lately he slowed down but still pretty good rookie season. He is gifted
scorer, handles the puck well, good understanding of the game, quick
hands and release. He needs to work on his strength and balance. Solid
penalty killer and is productive on the power-play.
Copyright 2001 Hockey’s Future. Do not reprint or otherwise duplicate without permission of the editorial staff.
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