2025 World Junior Championship Team Czechia Final Roster – The Hockey Writers Latest News, Analysis & More

On Thursday, Team Czechia announced their training camp roster for the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ottawa.

While this is only the preliminary roster at this time, more cuts will come right before the tournament begins in late December, and this article will be updated as we get closer to that point. Regardless, with the announcement coming out, it is important to remember that this is subject to change.

Related: Guide to the 2025 World Junior Championship

The roster consists of 14 players who have either been drafted or are in a professional team’s system, and features a few questionable exemptions such as Jaromír Pérez and Maxmilian Curran, and a curious addition in Adam Jiříček who has not played since early November.

As it stands, the Czechs have a 27-man roster that will be trimmed to 22 before the tournament officially begins. Here’s who will be representing the Lands of the Bohemian Crown.

Forwards

Vojtěch Čihař, Jiří Felcman, Mirsolav Holinka, Vojtěch Hradec, Adam Jecho, Ondřej Kos, Matěj Maštalířský, Adam Novotný, Dominik Petr, Petr Sikora, Eduard Šalé, Pavel Šimek, Jakub Štancel, Richard Žemlička, and Adam Židlický.

Of all the forwards on Team Czechia’s roster, there is no doubt that Eduard Šalé was a shoo-in to make the team. Šalé is playing in his third consecutive (and final) WJC, and has had a great season for the Coachella Valley Firebirds. With the Firebirds, he has played in 20 games racking up 12 points (four goals, eight assists).

Jakub Štancl, Adam Židlický, and Matěj Maštalířský are also all returning from the 2024 WJC and will look to lead their teammates to a second consecutive tournament where they have medaled. This time, however, they will look to win silver or gold, as opposed to bronze.

Štancl too is having an excellent season thus far, racking up 32 points in 26 games. The St. Louis Blues’ draftee has scored 11 goals and added 21 assists to his ledger, and will look to lead the attack on one of Team Czechia’s top lines throughout the World Juniors.

Židlický and Maštalířský are where the rubber hits the road for the Czechs, as the former has racked up 26 points in 27 games all while on a stretch that includes 15 goals. Maštalířský on the other hand, in the pre-tournament games went on a goal-per-game stretch where he scored 10 goals in as many games, and even added five assists while he was at it.

Team Czechia should be a team to watch out for offensively, but its defensive grouping is no slouch either.

Defensemen

Jakub Dvořák, Jakub Fibigr, Tomáš Galvas, Vojtěch Husinecký, Adam Jiříček, Matteo Kočí, Vojtěch Port, Marek Ročák, and Patrik Volas.

The headliners of this group are without a doubt Jakub Dvořák and Matteo Kočí. Dvořák, a returning player from the 2024 tournament, is in his first season in the professional ranks in the Los Angeles Kings system. In 14 games with the Ontario Reign, Dvořák has notched just three points, two of which have come in his last 10 games.

While his stats aren’t much to write home about, 49 games of experience on the international stage are what really set the stage for why he will be a force to be reckoned with for the Czech’s defensive core. Kočí was a longtime favorite to make the roster this time around and it looks like he will be sticking around past the summer camp.

The question mark on this roster is Adam Jiříček. Jiříček has not played a game since early November, which may give fans some pause as to why he is being named to the team considering the uncertainty surrounding his status. Perhaps either those putting the team together know something we don’t or he is on track to be ready by the time the tournament begins. Either way, it’ll be curious how much he plays even if he does become healthy by the time the tournament begins.

While there are a few players that stick out as headliners of both the defensemen and forwards, there is perhaps no one who sticks out as a headliner as much as the one from the final grouping.

Goaltenders

Michael Hrabal, Jan Kavan, Jakub Milota

There shouldn’t be any doubt about who the headliner of the goaltender group is. The one heading up the group, and perhaps the one who should start every game, is the University of Massachusetts product Michael Hrabal.

Frankly, Jan Kavan and Jakub Milota should get used to feeling the bench under their butts as it would take a forklift to take Hrabal off of the ice – that’s how resistant he is to giving up his starting role. Heck, even in the 2023-24 season for the Minutemen, as a freshman, Hrabal took the starting job from senior Cole Brady to start the season and never looked back.

This season, Hrabal’s numbers record-wise may not be exactly what he wants them to be, but everything seems to be only going up as the season goes on. Through 16 games, he has collected a 2.49 goals-against average (GAA) and .917 save percentage (SV%). Throughout this last stretch for the UMass netminder, he pulled off a 4-0 upset vs. No. 13 Boston University.

Hrabal will no doubt start for Team Czechia in the tournament, and he will be a force to be reckoned with standing at 6-foot-7, and getting better every day with his movements from one side of the net to the other.

How Should They Fare?

After finishing with a bronze medal in 2024, the Czechs will be looking for a better result this time around, but with how well-built the other nations are, they have to be careful not to get greedy.

However, with over 15 returnees on the roster, including a goalie with a bevy of experience, the only thing stopping them from taking other countries to task is themselves.

The WJC begins on Dec. 26, 2024.

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