Oilers draft best friends from same town in Czech Republic
When Tomas Mazura and Mataj Blumel were childhood teammates in Pardubice, lighting up the U10 and U12 leagues in former Edmonton Oiler Ales Hemsky’s hometown, they always dreamed about following his footsteps and playing together in the NHL.
Kids love to dream big like that but, as we all know, those fairy tales hardly ever come true.
By the time they hit 18, they had long since given up on the big league teammate thing. To be honest, they weren’t even certain they would be picked at all. So, rather than stress about it, they weren’t even following the NHL draft last weekend, choosing instead to have a poolside barbecue in the Czech Republic. Then the phone rang. “Matej, you’ve been drafted. Fourth round. The Edmonton Oilers.”
About an hour later, after the sixth round, another call.
“It was my roommate at school,” said Mazura. “He was just screaming. ‘You were drafted! The Oilers!’
“We’ve been best friends for a long time. We’ve been playing together since we were five years old. We would go to the rink together. We didn’t even know if we were going to be drafted, and to be drafted to the same team … it’s crazy.”
Next thing they knew, they were hopping on a plane to Edmonton for development camp. No way were they going to miss it.
The Oilers had no idea the two forwards even knew each other, but are glad it worked out the way it did.
“I was delighted,” said vice-president of player development Scott Howson. “Both of them said, ‘Yes, I want to come down right away, get me on a plane.’”
And here they are, both of them property of the same team Hemsky starred for.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Blumel said. “We’ve been best buddies since we were growing up in our hometown.”
Pardubice is a small place, so, yes, they know Hemsky.
“My dad is good friends with him and we play tennis in the summer and stuff,” Mazura said. “We’re not like great friends, but we know each other. I’ve been following him since he played here.”
Mazura put up 54 points in 37 games with Kimball Union Academy (New Hampshire) in the United States High School league last year, while Blumel had 60 points in 58 games for Waterloo (Iowa) in the United States Hockey League, begging the obvious question: how do a couple of teenagers from the Czech Republic end up playing prep school and junior hockey, respectively, in the U.S.?
“I wasn’t really getting a lot of opportunities at home because I was smaller than other kids,” said Mazura, who now checks in at six-foot-two, 181 pounds. “I had the skill, but I didn’t get a chance from a lot of coaches. I’d never been on the national team or anything.
“There was a kid on our team who was 15 and he had a beard. The coach brought me into his office and said, ‘How can you be successful when you don’t look like this kid. You have to work harder.’ I hadn’t even hit puberty yet.”
He knew he needed a different environment.
“I went to a hockey camp and I met Tim Whitehead (head coach at Kimball) and he recruited me. So I just went over. I didn’t use an agency or an agent. I just applied to prep school. It gave me time to develop, which is what I needed, and he believed in me.”
Blumel did have Czech national team exposure, so the colleges came looking for him. He came over at 16.
“I got recruited at the Hlinka tournament, but I was too young for college,” he said, adding he thought he would have to wait a couple of years. “Then I got called from Waterloo 14 days before camp started. It was really fast. I didn’t have much time to think about it. I just packed up all my stuff, said goodbye to my family and I was in the U.S.
“I think that’s better than knowing it all summer and having to think about it. I’m super happy I made this decision. It was cool to meet a lot of new people and a new culture.”
Blumel is off to the University of Connecticut next season, while Mazura is still contemplating his options. Just like when he was 15 and boarding a plane for the U.S., he wants what’s best for his development as a player.
“It was my first year as a big contributor on the (Kimball Union) team. I played a lot of power play and when we needed a goal I was on the ice. But I wasn’t on the ice when we needed to defend. I never played PK. I might go back there to get opportunities that I wouldn’t if I went to the USHL,” Mazura said.
“If you are ever lucky enough to be in the NHL or a pro league, you can’t always come in and be a first-line guy. You have to know how to play in different situations to be able to get opportunities. That’s how I see it.”