Photo Source: polskihokej.eu

Poland continues to prepare for the World Championships and evaluate the roster. There was was one area thought to be safe, goaltending. That might no longer be true as Tomáš Fučík still has yet to receive his Polish citizenship according to wyborcza.pl. Fučík has been a star goalie in the Polish league over the past nine years with some stops in Czechia and Slovakia in between. He has been waiting on Polish citizenship for over half a year. The Czech goalie turned in all of his required documents in October last year shortly after his marriage to former Stoczniowiec Gdansk player Aneta Błaszak, winner of three TLHK silver medals.

Fučík led all goalies during the regular season with a .931 save percentage for GKS Tychy. His play somehow even got better in the playoffs where he posted a .941 SV% mark. Over his six years and 200 plus THL games, he holds a career .934 SV%. With the Czech goalie starting a family in Poland, it seemed like a no doubt choice to add him to the national team as an import. Poland’s current star goalie John Murray is turning 37 this summer. It is unknown how long Murray will keep playing or keep up his high level of play. At 30-years-old, Fučík seemed like the perfect stop gate until a young Polish goalie was ready to take over. He has since played in a couple non-IIHF games for the national team posting strong performances versus Austria and Slovenia.

While Kalaber doesn’t seem to be setting a hard deadline, he has commented wanting an answer on Tomáš Fučík’s status soon. If Fučík is out, then the backup role will come down to Dawid Zabolotny or Maciej Miarka. Zabolotny spent last year in the Germany second league, while Miarka was the split starter for JKH GKS Jastrzebie. At the 2024 Olympic Qualifiers they shared the net for Poland as Murray was injured and Fučík still had not gained his citizenship. Miarka and Zabolotny both preformed great at the event, with Zabolotny getting two starts versus Miarka’s one. Miarka was chosen to replace Murray at last year’s D1A World Championship, when the GKS Katowice star was injured during warmups. While losing Fučík would hurt, I still believe Poland would be more than ready in net.

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