Press conference with the players and management of the implementation team of the under-20 hockey team after returning from the World Championship, January 7, 2023, Prague. From left, ČSLH chairman Alois Hadamczik and coach Radim Rulík.
Prague – The junior hockey team will continue to be led by coach Radim Rulík with assistants Jiří Kalous and Marko Židlický. David Čermák took over the 18, and Pavel Patera, the Olympic champion from Nagano, took over the 17. Milan Razým continues with the under-16 selection. The women's national team will continue to be coached by Canadian Carla MacLeod. The composition of the implementation teams of the youth and women's national teams was approved by the executive committee of the Czech Ice Hockey Association during Wednesday's and today's meetings, it was announced in a press release.
Advertisement'; }
Fifty-seven-year-old Rulík led the national under-20 team to a surprising silver at the turn of the year, and Pardubice to extra-league bronze later in the season. Václav Varaďa replaced him at Dynamo at the beginning of May. In addition to Rulík, Židlický and Kalous, Ondřej Pavelec also remained in the role of goalkeeper coach. Otakar Černý remains the manager of the twenty.
The current coach of the 18 team, Jakub Petr, was replaced by Čermák, who led Kladno and České Budějovice in the extra league as head coach. But Čermák also worked for the youth team in the Knights team. His assistants will be Jaroslav Nedvěd and Richard Žemlička. Lukáš Mensator will alternate with Michal Neuvirth as goalkeeper coach. Michal Vondrka was appointed as the new manager of the 18.
The 17 team also has a new head coach, which will be led by Patera with assistants David Moravec and František Ptáček. Patera has been involved in Kladno, where he also worked with the youth team, Mladá Boleslav and Sparta. The 17 team will also have two goalkeeping coaches alternating: Petr Přikryl, who is the chairman of the association's goalkeeping committee, and Marek Schwarz. Petr Hubáček took up the position of manager of the national under-17 team.
Razým will coach the sixteen team together with assistants Milan Plodek and Václav Benák, Václav Fürbacher and Filip Šindelář are in charge of the goalkeepers. Petr Jonák will be the manager of the team.
In previous seasons, the Czech hockey team also organized the under-19 national team, but after the turn of the year, its events will go under the heading of the future under-20 selection, for that reason there will no longer be a Czech under-19 national team years as a separate category.
The implementation teams of women's hockey selections will continue in the 2023/24 season in an almost unchanged form as in the previous year. The women's A-team will continue to be led by MacLeodová, who won the first ever bronze medal with her last year, and this year the Czechs defended their 3rd place under her leadership.
