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Czech 2004 prospects: Jan Zapletal
Written by: Robert Neuhauser on 03/09/2004 
Jan Zapletal had one of the latest beginnings of his hockey career from all his 2004 eligible peers. Even though his father played organised hockey till the junior level, he didn't make any push on his son to begin a career of his own. He wanted him to give some sports a try and then decide, what is the best for him. So it came that Zapletal was enlisted in the skiing club and was racing downhill on the snow before he was even thinking about performing on the other winter element, ice. When he was about to start attending elementary school, Zapletal was eager to start playing soccer, which is one of the most popular Czech sports. He performed for the Moravska Slavia Brno team, but after some time he saw that soccer still isn't the right decision. It wasn't until the 3rd grade when the play with stick and puck finally won and Zapletal's steps took the direction Rondo Arena in his native Brno for the first time.
"When I told my father that I finally decided to play hockey, he was happy about it and supported me a lot in the beginning. And I was also eager to start playing this game, which attracted me a lot."
At that time he was eight years old and most of his future teammates on the HC Ytong Brno team had about two or three years of hockey experience under their belt. Now it was up to Zapletal to cut the margin. He was attending an elementary school which was affiliated with the well-known Brno hockey elementary school in the Labska Street in the Stary Liskovec district, but still was a huge task awaiting him. Ytong Brno 3rd grade team head coach Petr Novacek has taught him all the basics of hockey and because Zapletal was a kid gifted for sports, it didn't take him a long time to learn how to skate and handle the puck. He displayed some nifty moves so that coach Novacek has put Zapletal in the front lines to perform at offense. His improvement took a rapid upward path, so at the end of his first season Zapletal grabbed the Ytong Brno 3rd grade 'Top Rookie' award.
"This was the first trophy I ever won in my career, it supported my confidence that I'm capable of playing this sport and hopefully succeed."
The next season, 1995-1996, was a major change for Zapletal. Even though he felt comfortable at forward and chipped in offensively, he spent the complete season in the back rows. Ytong Brno 4th grade head coach Zdenek Stepanik needed to boost the defense and because Zapletal showed a decent defensive commitment, he was the likely candidate to fill the void. But he still had a lot to learn, opponents with more prowess gave him lessons and he wasn't considered even a solid prospect at this stage of development.
Jan Zapletal's time on defense wasn't long. In 1996-1997, when he was performing for the 5th grade team of Brno, he was playing forward again. He wasn't hindered a lot by all these transitions and his swift skating skills and adequate smarts enabled him to emerge as one of the offensive leaders of his team.
This fact was supported in the year when Zapletal hit the ice with the 6th grade team of Ytong Brno. At a 6th graders' tournament, played in Frydek-Mistek, Czech Republic, he left a very good impression and was even voted the 'Top forward' of the tournament. This was Zapletal's first individual achievment.
After enjoying a solid campaign for the 7th grade team in 1998-1999, Jan Zapletal's 1999-2000 season was hampered by injuries as he had to battle trouble with his collarbone when he was hit in a road game at Uherske Hradiste. He also felt pain in his knee because of ACL problems, but didn't miss a big portion of the 8th grade team's schedule.
He bounced back with a strong showing for the HC Ytong Brno 9th grade team, his last season before moving up to the midget category. Zapletal, an alternate captain of the team, formed a strong line with Michal Stepanik and Jan Hruska. This line provided lots of offensive output of the team, coached by Rudolf Krupicka and Milan Florian. Zapletal avoided any significant slumps and scored regularly, which proved that he is ready for the midget competition.
"My season for the 9th grade team was my best before moving up to the midget level. We showed some good chemistry with my linemates and I enjoyed playing with the guys and scoring goals."
Changes in the structure of hockey in Brno caused that the players from the two midget teams in Brno formed one squad, which competed at the highest level in the midget Extraleague. This team was called Krokodyli HC Brno and Zapletal made the team out of the summer camp.
But he recorded a poor season for the Krokodyli HC Brno midgets in 2001-2002, his inaugural season in the midget Extraleague. He couldn't get along well with head coach Martin Stloukal and didn't see a lot of playing time. Thus he couldn't adjust to the midget game smoothly and struggled with the pace at times. He wasn't able to score against the midget opponents and in 27 midget games Zapletal recorded mere 3 points for 3 goals, a -8 and 8 PIMs. According to these stats Jan Zapletal would have the upside of a district league player and it didn't look like he is going to develop into a coveted prospect.
But he felt that he is capable of achieving a higher level of play and in the games of his first midget seasons he showed glimpses of talent, which didn't remain hidden to the staff of the HC Vsetin team. The nearby Extraleague franchise was looking to add new young talent to their prospect pipeline and Zapletal was penciled as one of the potential boosts. Upset by the situation in Brno and looking for a change of teams, Zapletal didn't hesitate to move to Vsetin as soon as he had the offer in his hands. He joined the Vsetin midgets squad prior to the 2002-2003 campaign.
"I didn't have so much playing time in Brno as I would like to, so I couldn't find my game. When I had a chance to join a team such as Vsetin, it was a no-brainer for me."
In Vsetin, Zapletal, nicknamed 'Zaple' from his surname, got to feel the coaching methods of experienced midget coach Jiri Hudler, father of the Detroit Red Wings forward of the same name. With more playing time his confidence grew and Zapletal emerged as a decent, but unspectacular two-way forward. Besides providing some offense he took care of his own end with a solid maturity. He wasn't a feared physical menace, but his smarts enabled him to be effective on the backcheck. Zapletal was skating mostly on the third line of the Vsetin midget team. This squad enjoyed a cinderella playoff run in the 2002-2003 edition of the midget Extraleague when they swept aside all the opponents before facing the mighty Kladno midgets in the finals. Vsetin took the Kladno squad to five games of the best-of-five series, despite battling the odds of being an underdog in this series. In the fifth game they lost, but still the second place overall was a remarkable success for a squad, which besides Zapletal boasted other noticeable players such as defenseman Lubomir Stach and forwards Martin Husicka and Marek Knebl. En route to the silver medals Jan Zapletal dressed out for 37 midget games, recording 7 points for 4 goals and 3 assists to go along with 10 PIMs.
The summer of 2003 saw Jan Zapletal, a Detroit Red Wings fan, finish his midget eligibility and move up to the junior ranks. Vsetin juniors head coach Bretislav Kopriva, the current head coach of the Czech Under-17 team, made now the turning point in Zapletal's career. Looking at his sub-par offensive stats, he repeated the experiment of coach Zdenek Stepanik back in Brno and has slotted Zapletal to play defense. So Zapletal took on the ice for the summer exhibition games already as a defenseman and the results of this move were soon to be seen. Zapletal saw that this is the best for him and began to display a good mix of swift skating skills, solid smarts and defensive awareness. At the beginning of the season he wasn't rushing forward as much as a former forward would do, fitting the mold of a stay-at-homer. He didn't have any problems with adjusting to the junior Extraleague and established himself as one of the defensive anchors of his team, albeit being a rookie. He prefers to play alongside experienced rearguard Frantisek Krystynek and this duo gets along well on the ice. Jan Zapletal has appeared in 43 junior games so far, registering 8 points for 2 goals and 6 assists along with 24 PIMs. Zapletal saw his stock soar also among NHL scouts.
"I'm very thankful to junior head coach Kopriva for this move. He gave me the chance to show that I can handle the junior Extraleague game and the switch to defense turned out to be very smart. It suits me well to play defense in the end."
It was only a matter of time before he wore the Czech junior national team jersey. This happened for the first time at the Christmas evaluation camp of the Czech Under-18 team. There they played four exhibition games, in which he went scoreless, but leaving a solid impression with his defensive savvy and reliability.
So it came that in the first week of February he was invited to the Four Nations Tournament already with the Under-20 team, one of the quickest examples of progress in Czech junior hockey. There Zapletal was performing alongside other former Brno defenseman, Ondrej Smach, and recorded his first international point for 1 assist.
At 6'2", 185 lbs. one of the strongest assets of Jan Zapletal is his above-average size. He skates remarkably well for a big man, Zapletal possesses a smooth stride and has a good agility and first-step quickness to go along with solid balance. He is reliable in his own end as he doesn't suffer from glaring positional breakdowns and stays with his man. Zapletal sees the ice quite well and once he has his defensive duties done, he sometimes takes advantage of the chance to join the rush. Zapletal possesses decent puckhandling skills, but needs to keep his game simple in order to avoid mistakes when rushing the puck. He unleashes slap shots with an adequate accuracy, but could use a harder blast. He is a solid passer who needs to further develop his work on the offensive blue line, though. Bulking up and using his frame to a bigger extent is another thing to work on for Zapletal, who isn't a feared physical presence at this point.
Even then, he considers hard-nosed former Czech NHL defenseman and current Edmonton Oilers European scout Frantisek Musil his biggest hockey role model.
"I watched him playing in the NHL and admired his play. He was helpful also to the Jihlava team in the Division I senior league upon his return from the NHL and I like his style."
Jan Zapletal isn't a very superstitious player, but he has a few things he does before each game. He takes the same massage before each contest, has to have his gear always on its right place and he never forgets to clear the visor on his helmet before the pre-game skate. The last thing is using the same warmup excersises.
Zapletal is dedicated to hockey also in his free time. He is aware of how relaxing is important for a professional athlete and does also lots of running for regeneration. Zapletal has to fill school duties besides playing hockey, he is a student of the secondary school for bussiness "Kostka" in Vsetin. When he has some more spare time left, he often hits the weight room in order to boost his strength. When Zapletal isn't active, then he is frequently just hanging out with his friends on a hostel where he stays. He prefers to listen to hip-hop and rap music and likes to be surrounded by music.
Zapletal tends to stay in Europe for the next season, but still the
player represented by agent Jaroslav Palat didn't fully rule out the
possibility of performing in the CHL next season. Ranked 57th among Europeans by the CSB
mid-term ranking, Zapletal looks like a lock to be selected in the 2004
NHL Entry Draft.
Copyright 2004 Hockey’s Future. Do not reprint or otherwise duplicate without permission of the editorial staff.
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