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Czech 2005 prospects: Tomas Kudelka
Written by: Robert Neuhauser on 11/02/2003 
Kudelka had relatively a late beginning to his hockey career. He wasn't born in a family where anyone was involved in hockey in any way and didn't have anybody who would bring him to the game. Kudelka just liked sports, but didn't prefer any particular one. At that time advertising of hockey paid off. The team in his native city, Zlin, Czech Republic, made a call to all elementary schools in the city, if any of the kids would be interested in playing organized hockey. Tomas Kudelka was already eight years old and still not playing any sport, so he decided to give hockey a try.
From that time on, he went to the Ludek Cajka Arena in Zlin regularly. Kudelka laced up the skates for the first time and began to learn how to skate and move the puck. He spent one year with practicing the hockey basics and soon was good enough to compete at his respective age level, the 4th grade. Some of his teammates were playing for a longer time than Kudelka, but his strong attitude and a willingness to listen to the advice given to him helped him to overcome this.
Zlin 4th grade head coach Jiri Solc put Kudelka on defense, with occasional moves to the forward positions. Kudelka was happy with playing defense and besides patrolling his own zone he also joined the rush when he had the chance to do so. He wasn't a player who would stand out from the youngest grades, in the beginnings on his career he was just an average defenseman on the Zlin 1987 borns team.
But Kudelka recorded a steady improvement in every one of his seasons at the pee-wee level. He was competing at every practice or game and could outplay the opponents who weren't as dedicated as he was. Thanks to his offensive flair Kudelka, nicknamed 'Kudas', 'Koudel' or 'Kudis' from his surname, could also support the offense and put up decent numbers for a rearguard. In the 6th grade under head coach Eduard Svoboda he won his first individual trophy for the Best Defenseman at one youth tournament.
His play in the own end became more reliable and Kudelka learned how to play in position more and added a bit of toughness to his game. His season for the 7th grade team was above average and beginning with the 8th grade, Tomas Kudelka was voted captain of his team. Zlin 8th grade coaches Zdenek Svoboda and Libor Zilka recognized the talent Kudelka had and gave him lots of tips on improving his strength, which was necessary in surviving in the upcoming leap to the midget Extraleague. Kudelka could skate and make plays, but not outmuscle his opponents. This was something he had to work on.
He captained his team for two seasons and after completing his season for the 9th grade he was ready to perform for the Zlin midgets. He had his season for the 9th grade shortened with a broken hand he suffered at a meeting of the regional teams, but was ready to start the summer workouts on time. Tomas Kudelka had a short call-up to the midget team already in 2001-2002. Zlin midgets head coach Jaroslav Stuchlik gave him a taste of the midget Extraleague in 7 games, where Kudelka went scoreless, with a good +/- of +4 and 2 PIMs.
The 2002-2003 campaign was his first full midget season. Thanks to the experience from the previous season Kudelka didn't have any trouble with his adjustment to the midget Extraleague pace. He provided his team with solid defensive savvy and a decent offensive output. Kudelka joined the rush frequently and also saw significant powerplay time. This resulted into Kudelka posting good numbers. In 37 games for the Zlin midgets Kudelka amassed 14 points for 2 goals and 12 assists and 38 PIMs. He felt most comfortable when playing behind the Psurny twins, Kudelka could feed them with smart passes and the two offensive forwards chipped the pucks in. Kudelka shared with his teammates success as the Zlin midgets fought their way into the midget Extraleague finals, where they lost to Trinec, but the silver medals were also a respectable achievement.
Tomas Kudelka burst onto the international stage in 2002-2003. He pulled off an impressive showing at the evaluation camp of the Czech Under-16 team and coaches Bretislav Kopriva and Vladimir Bednar have invited Kudelka to all but one tournament of the international schedule. Kudelka only didn't make the trip to the three-game series against the Under-16 team of Slovakia, played in August, 2002. So he had to wait till the three-game series against the Under-16 team of Switzerland to make his international debut. He notched 1 assist in that series. Kudelka went scoreless at the upcoming event, a three-game series against the Under-16 team of Russia. But he entered the scoresheet at the main event of the season, the Four Nations Tournament of the Under-16 teams, where he registered 1 assist. He closed out the season with an appearance in a three-game series against the Under-16 team of Slovakia, notching 2 assists. This rounded out Kudelka's international stats at 12 games played and 4 points for 4 assists.
After showing maturity beyond his age at the midget level, Tomas Kudelka wasn't invited back for his second full midget season and made the leap already to the junior team. Zlin juniors head coach Stanislav Prikrly was happy with the performance he saw from Kudelka at the summer camp and rewarded him with a regular spot on the Zlin juniors defensive rotation. So far has Kudelka dressed out for 15 junior games, scoring 4 points for 4 assists, a huge +/- of +14 and 16 PIMs.
He made his first appearance with the Czech Under-17 team at the Five Nations Tournament, played in Prievizda, Slovakia this past August. Kudelka went scoreless at this event, but will look to bounce back at the upcoming tournament in Kuortane, Finland, which will be played the next week.
A smooth skater, Tomas Kudelka impresses with his above-average speed and agility. He is fast backwards and has solid lateral movement to go along with his good balance. He is an offensive-minded rearguard and displays remarkable poise when moving the puck. Kudelka uses his reach effectively and is adept at distributing the pucks smartly. He is still prone to the odd bad decision with the puck, though. Kudelka is positionally sound and doesn't tend to make mistakes in this aspect. He doesn't hesitate to fire his shot, which is quite accurate, but needs to be more hard. On the downside Kudelka could play with more of a mean streak and show his nasty edge more often. At 6'1”, 180 lbs. he possesses a solid frame, but isn't fully using it to his advantage. Overall he is a good package of skill, smarts and offensive upside, once he develops his aggressiveness enough then he can possibly think of a career in North America.
Kudelka admires the play of Detroit Red Wings star defenseman Niklas Lidstrom and considers Lidstrom the world's best defenseman these days. Kudelka is careful about doing all his pre-game superstitions before each game. He keeps them secret, except of one. He puts the gear always from the right side first and sticks to this superstition for a long time. On the Zlin junior team he had to give up his favorite number 15 as this is the number of the team's captain, overager Jakub Venera. He had to switch to number 35, but has no problem with this.
Tomas Kudelka prefers to spend his free time with his girlfriend Pavla. When they aren't together, then you'll find Kudelka mostly playing some other sport. He is an all-round athlete and likes to play soccer or tennis. School takes a good chunk of Kudelka's free time, he is in the second year of his studies at a secondary school for sports in Zlin, which is also attended by his teammates, the twins Roman and Michal Psurny. A fond of hard rock music, Tomas Kudelka prefers to listen to the groups Linkin Park or Blink 182, which always put him in a good mood.
Represented by agent Robert Spalenka, Kudelka isn't rushing to the CHL.
He isn't ruling out coming over, but his goal is to play at the
Under-18 WJC and only after that think about the CHL. In 2005 he has a very good chance of achieving this goal.
Copyright 2003 Hockey’s Future. Do not reprint or otherwise duplicate without permission of the editorial staff.
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