Jasek goes from nowhere to prospect
Draft pick from 2015 breaks free of Czech contract just in time to show Canucks what he can do
Sometimes a team can make the right draft pick and it can still go wrong. That’s how it felt for the Canucks and Lukas Jasek too.
The entry-level contract the Canucks signed him to this week is a beginning for Jasek in his pursuit of an NHL career.
For those betting against him, good luck to you.
Because the contract is also an ending, a finish line of sorts for a 20-year-old who wanted nothing more than a shot to play in North America.
But for two seasons, after he was a sixth-round pick at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, he wasn’t even getting a shot to play.
Not many games, not many minutes and not a snifter of special teams for the top rung of the Czech club team he was on.
Instead, Jasek was stuck in a prospect’s version of the netherworld, locked to a Czech club which showed zero interest in his development or best interests. It took patience, backbone, drive and ultimately talent for him to get his way out of it.
Jasek arrived in Utica on an amateur tryout at the end of March, giving him his first chance to play in a North American league. If he had his way, he would have arrived here years ago.
“It was very hard and very frustrating for him,” said Allan Walsh, the player agent who Jasek switched to at the end of the 2016-17 season.
“When he asked us what was best for his development, I told him unquestionably the better place for his development from the day he was drafted would have been in North America.
“It’s something he believed in himself as well. He just kept saying: “I don’t understand why I’m in this situation.
“I’ve wanted to play in North America since I was drafted and I’ve sort of been forced to play here.’
“That right there is a testament to his ability to deal with adversity.”
Jasek is a player. The Canucks needed all of six games to be convinced. Jasek put up seven points in those six, including two game-winning
goals and some really good five-on-five play. He then started the playoffs on the Comets top line after signing his NHL contract.
If you haven’t heard by now, more heralded prospects and much higher draft picks, Jonathan Dahlen and Kole Lind were scratched to start Utica’s post-season.
“What really makes this compelling,” Walsh said. “Is how much (the Vancouver organization) fell in love with this kid from a character and work ethic perspective.
“And how quickly he elevated himself in their eyes to being a potential NHL prospect. That really is the story.”
There were pundits who loved the Jasek from pick the moment the Canucks announced it in 2015. Canucks Army, the local hockey blog which has sent several contributors on to NHL jobs and shines brightest when analyzing prospects, gushed about Jasek for months after the draft.
He was 17 years old and playing pro hockey in the top tier of Czech hockey. And he can skate. Actually, he can fly. Asked to compare his speed, the first name which came to Vancouver GM Jim Benning’s mind was Michael Grabner. He’s, uhm, fast.
But in his draft-plus-one season,
Jasek was a bit part on his Czech team, which played him sparingly on its elite team while shuttling him back and forth regularly with their junior squad. For reference, this is not in the handbook of how to best develop teenagers into NHL regulars.
“They have club teams there,” Benning said. “You grow up being a member of these programs and you’re at their mercy. You might dress but you don’t play a whole lot for the elite team while they could have you play 20 minutes a night for their junior team.
“You see that a lot in the Czech Republic. We had talked to him, and were trying to get him to play major junior in Canada but we couldn’t get him released from his contract to do that.
“We were concerned. When these kids are 18. 19 and not playing, they don’t get a chance to develop as players.
“But this year, he got his confidence, starting making plays and his development took off.”
He did, but it wasn’t easy.
“He reached out to us at the end of (the 2016-17) season,” Walsh said. “He said ‘Listen, I’m locked into this contract. I don’t have an out to play major junior. I don’t know why this was thrust on me.
“’I want out of here. It’s my dream to play in North America.’”
What Jasek was advised to do was focus on was having the best year he could, while hoping Utica was still in it when his Czech season was over so the Canucks could see what he was all about.
“Under the Czech-NHL transfer agreement, if any player drafted signs an NHL contract, their Czech deal is terminated,” Walsh said.
“But up till now, and understandably so, Vancouver didn’t have enough information or coverage before he came to Utica to offer him an NHL contract.
“This how it got brokered. When a player is signed from Europe where the country is a party to the IIHF transfer agreement, and Czech Republic is one of them, the (club team) gets $240,000 in transfer fees from the NHL.
“What we said to Liberec (Jasek’s club team) was that it was in their best interest to let him go right away since the season was over on an ATO.
“Get him to Utica, let him play games so he could earn himself a contract and they could get the transfer fees which is what they really wanted. It was potentially win-win for everyone.”
It remains to be seen whether Jasek can become an NHL regular. But just the fact he’s in the organization playing already feels like a win.
NOTE: Even after a season-ending injury, Brock Boeser’s fine work has been noticed by the NHL’s hockey writers.
Boeser was announced Sunday as one of three finalists for the Calder Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the league’s rookie of the year. Also nominated are the New York Islanders’ — and Coquitlam native — Mathew Barzal and Clayton Keller of the Arizona Coyotes.
The winner will be announced June 20 at the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas.