Unlike last year, when he apologized due to an injury, goalkeeper Nick Malík joined the preparation of the Czech hockey national team and hopes to get his first start. The 20-year-old son of former defender Marek Malík is in his second season with the Finnish team KooKoo Kouvola and told reporters today that he is happy to continue with the club. In recent days, he extended his contract by a year.
“The Finnish league is great, especially for goalkeepers. There are very experienced players, every year the competition seems stronger to me. I’m looking forward to next year and hope it will be better again. I’m growing there not only in training and matches, but in general, how it works there. I think I’ve made a big progress in two years and maybe that’s why I’m in the national team,” Malík said.
A native of Raleigh, where his father played for Carolina, he started playing in Vítkovice as a child after returning from the USA and moved to Třinec in 2018. He caught in partner Frýdek-Místek and played for Ocelář in the extra league in only two games in the 2019/20 season. He then finished this in the Soo Greyhounds jersey in the OHL and after returning to Frýdek-Místek he headed to Kouvola the year before.
“I didn’t play in the highest senior competition in the Czech Republic. It’s really great that I’m playing at the highest level in Finland. Last season I had an excellent goalkeeping coach (Kari Lehtonen) there, who was with the Finnish national team. He gave me a lot,” Malík praised.
In the 2020/21 year, also in order to further build his position in KooKoo, he turned down the role of three at the World Twenty20 Championship. There was also a forced apology to the representative “A”. “There was always something there, not that I was against it. As I turned down the twenties, I felt it would be the best decision. Even though I knew it was my last junior championship. I knew that for my growth it would be important to keep that position in the club,” said Malík
According to him, the apology caused an unnecessary uproar. “Not only mine, but Marcel Barinka refused a year before me. People see it as a sign of disrespect for the nation, but it’s not like that at all. Whenever there’s an opportunity to represent, we’re happy to go. It’s just that at that given moment, everyone wants to do what they want he thinks that he is the best for his development. It was certainly not that I was being disrespectful. I just felt that I was making the best decision,” stated Malík.
“Last year there was an injury. I experienced my first senior play-off in the top flight. I caught quite a large amount of games and I have to say that my body felt it quite a bit. It was a minor injury, but I didn’t want to irritate it so it wouldn’t get worse and it wasn’t anything more serious,” he commented on his excuse from last year’s preparation for the World Cup.
His only experience with the national team is from February 2021, when he was in training as a three before the Swedish Games. “It was short. I ended my contract in Třinec at the time. It was during the covid period, there was an opportunity to go on a utility vehicle, I was the only free goalkeeper. I went as an insurance policy in case something happened,” he noted.
At the end of April, Malík will celebrate his 21st birthday, and a start in the national team would be an early gift for him. “It would be great if I got the match and if I did well. I’m mainly focused now on feeling good on the ice. We had a break of two and a half weeks. The first three, four days we had something with the team. Not completely celebrations, more like a light drink that we finished the season. A lot of guys are leaving, we wanted to say goodbye. Then home and rest. Then they called me to come to the national team meeting. I quickly jumped into the gym, had one ice and went to the meeting, ” said Malik.
He is pleased with the extension of the season. “Already considering that the last season was not so good. I didn’t get as much space as last year. I will try to extend it a bit and I hope that I am not in the last camp and I will extend it even more. The season was up and down. From at the beginning we didn’t win much, it was so strange. I had a lot of games where I didn’t go well. It wasn’t that they were going extra for me, but we weren’t winning and the other guy (Oskari Setänen) was getting more chances. It developed from that until almost the end of the season,” said Malík. “It’s not that I really want to indulge myself. I already did that towards the end of the season, when I caught up with the playoffs and I did quite well.”
Last year, he was selected by Tampa Bay in the 5th round of the draft at the 160th position, and he immediately flew to the rookie camp. “It was a hoot. They drafted me when it was nine or ten in the evening in the Czech Republic. They called me and immediately sorted out the plane tickets. You were a bit shocked that everything was happening at once. I went to the airport in Krakow in the morning. From there to Tampa and the second day for training. But a great experience,” Malík recounted.
