Forward Filip Chytil from New York Rangers will strengthen the hockey team for the World Championships in Riga and Tampere. Defender Jakub Zbořil from Boston will also fight for participation in the preparation, who is waiting for his debut in the national team. He, on the other hand, left the defender Radek Kučerík from Kometa Brno.
Gunner David Pastrňák and center David Krejčí, who finished the season in the Boston jersey with injuries, will not repeat their participation from last year’s bronze championship.
Another Bruins forward, Tomáš Nosek, also apologized due to health problems, and for personal reasons, another member of the numerous Czech colony in the best team of the regular season of the NHL, Pavel Zacha. The general manager of the national team, Martin Havlát, informed about it today.
The 23-year-old Chytil is already preparing for his fourth World Cup, where he started three times in a row in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Last year, he missed the Rangers’ trip to the Eastern Conference finals. In the national team, he has 30 matches and 14 points for eight goals and six assists. He now had his best season in the NHL and collected 45 points (22+23) in 74 games. He added a goal and three assists in seven playoff games.
Zbořil, who is three years older, will make his debut in the national team. He wore the jersey of the national youth team for the last time in 2017 at the World Twenty20. In a packed lineup, the Bruins played only 22 games in the season and scored four points (1+3). The last time he started was on April 9, when he assisted with a pass to Boston’s victory on the ice of Philadelphia.