Two significant contributors to the Polish national team are going to be trying their hand abroad this year in Belarus. Forward Krystian Dziubiński and Defenseman Oskar Jaśkiewicz have both signed one year deals with Neman Grodno.
At 32-years-old, this is the first time that Krystian Dziubiński will be playing abroad in his senior career. He did play high school and junior hockey in the United States. Dziubiński has played in the PHL since 2008, racking up 578 games, and 514 points (243-271-514). The Nowy Targ native has also been an irreplaceable member of the national team, appearing at IIHF senior events for Poland in 12 straight years. Last year, he played with Podhale Nowy Targ recording 60 points (29-31-60) in 53 games, a new career-high. Dziubiński had made his intentions of playing abroad known after the PHL playoffs were canceled.
Per Planetofhockey.com, Oskar Jaśkiewicz will be joining his national teammate for his first trip abroad. The 24-year-old two-way defenseman is one of the best Polish defensemen right now. The Nowy Targ native had spent his entire career with Podhale Nowy Targ, up until he signed with GKS Katowice last season. A big part of his signing in Katowice was experienced head coach Risto Dufva, who controversially left mid-season. Jaśkiewicz recorded 13 points (2-11-13) in 49 games this year with Katowice. He also recorded a goal and two assists at the Olympic qualifiers.
This will be a valuable experience for both players. They will gain more experience against stronger competition regularly. This was also a big deal for former national team forward turned agent Krzysztof Zapała, as these are the first two clients of his to sign a deal with a stronger league outside of Poland.
Neman Grodno is one of the top clubs in Belarus. They have won four championships this decade and finished first or second in the regular season every year since 2016. The team will also be playing in the Champions Hockey League this year. Grodno is also where GKS Katowice captain Grzegorz Pasiut played from 2016 to 2018.
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Things started to appear as dark as they always do for the Men’s senior team just days before this tournament. Patryk Wronka had pulled out, as well as three other players and Poland was a bit low on depth. In the end though, this Polish squad took the lead in every game they played and only once trailed in the entire tournament after a slow first period against Ukraine. This was the best I have seen the men’s team play in a long time. Easily their best tournament under Tomek Valtonen.
Walls Wish They Could Be Murray
One of the biggest reasons Poland won this tournament and are advancing to the next stage of the Olympic Qualification is John Murray. He was outstanding and finished with a .960 save percentage. The highest in the entire tournament! His best performance was against Kazaksthan where he stopped 51 out 53 shots.
Points for Ciura!
Bartosz Ciura had played in 59 games for the Polish men’s team before this tournament. He had not recorded a single point in any of those games. The GKS Tychy defensemen isn’t that bad offensively recording 96 points (21-75-96) in 446 PHL games. Against the Netherlands, he recorded his first assist for the Men’s team and against Kazakhstan his first goal to give Poland a 1-0 lead.
The Open League Improvement
Poland’s controversial decision to remove an import limit on the league was met with comments about how it could kill Polish hockey. In year one, the league is stronger than ever before. Polish captain Krystian Dziubinski talked about it to IIHF.com,
“Now it’s very tight, any one of the top eight teams can beat anyone else. The other two are not quite there, but maybe they will change something in the near future. Most important, the standard is getting higher. We can see that with the Polish teams in the Visegrad Cup. Jastrzebie won that cup last month, they beat Nitra, who came second in the Slovak league last year, so there’s more progress there.”
The standard is raising for sure and the increased quality of the league has resulted in some big growths for younger Polish players. Dominik Pas was able to continue to test his defensive side against much stronger players and looked miles ahead of last year. Oskar Jaskiewicz seemed more offensively sound and confident and scored twice. Jakub Michalowski held his own defensively never looking out of place. While the detractors may be right in the long run, there have been nothing benefits to the first year of the open league in my opinion.
Strong Special Teams
It seems often when doing 5 Thoughts I have to point out a weak penalty kill or power play. That is now the case for Poland this time. Poland’s powerplay was the best in the entire group with a 35.7 powerplay percentage. The penalty kill was even better not allowing a single powerplay goal on all eight kills.
A Much Needed Win
The first article I wrote this year was looking at who had the most to prove in 2020. The number one person on that list was Tomek Valtonen, I kept his short basically saying it was time to win or get out. Valtonen picked up the biggest win of his Polish hockey career today. The team looked fantastic and really seemed to be clicking in his system. When I defended Ted Nolan I said it would take more than a year to install a system. While his start may have been rougher, the same goes for Valtonen. In a time where the men’s team was appearing as dark as could be this was a much-needed win. There is a light at the end of the tunnel again.
Quick Thoughts
– Oskar Jaskiewicz had a great tournament, not only did he score two goals, but he also added an assist. He tied Krystian Dziubinski for the lead in shots on the team with 12.
– Three of the six defensemen on this team were 25 or under. Defense is probably the position Poland lacks the most depth at. This tournament saw them missing three national team regulars. The defense was able to thrive though.
– Martin Przygodzki is one of the numerous players that never had any national team chances until Valtonen arrived, in his IIHF senior debut he scored two goals.
– Congrats to Michal Kieler on stopping the lone shot he faced in the tournament. The young goalie does actually have a bright future for Poland.
Leading up to the start of 2019-20 season, we will preview every team in the PHL
Lets put yourself in the shoes of KH GKS Katowice. After making it to the finals in the 2017-18 season, KH GKS Katowice had to settle for a bronze medal in 2018-19. This was a very disappointing result when the team finished first place in the PHL regular season. This included just losing 7 games along with scoring 200 plus goals while allowing less than 80. Now, of course, this was a disappointing result, but that regular season was so dominant can you really afford to make changes? KH GKS Katowice had an aggressive offseason. Only 10 players are returning from last year’s bronze medal team. This includes a change in the head coach as Tom Coolen is replaced by Risto Dufva. Are these new players enough to finally take Katowice to the top though?
Forwards
Nestori Lähde – Grzegorz Pasiut – Patryk Krezolek
Tuukka Rajamäki – Jussi Makkonen – Jaakko Turtiainen
Tadej Cimzar – Oula Uski – Teddy Da Costa
Mateusz Michalski – Filip Starzynski – Kamil Paszek
Other forwards: Mikolaj Lopuski, Szymon Mularczyk
This offense features some great Polish players and a lot of talented players with a majority of the imports coming from Finland. This is easy explained by Finnish head coach Risto Dufva, we saw the same thing happen with Tomek Valtonen last year in Podhale. Jussi Makkonen is the most notable of those Finnish players, he has recorded over 700 games in the Liiga and over 330 points. I’m really curious to see how he will produce in the PHL. I have to imagine he should at least be a point per game player. Slovenia player Tadej Cimzar is a player that I’m really curious about. He had a really strong year in the Alps Hockey League, a breakout performance that it seemed like he once had the potential to achieve his junior days and finally hit it at 26-years-old. Teddy Da Costa also returns to Poland after a year away. It will be his ninth PHL season. The talented French forward is honestly one of the biggest players to come out of the PHL this century. In terms of Polish players, the biggest name is Grzegorz Pasiut. Pasiut is such a talented player and a joy to watch. He has been a key member of 7 championship teams both in Belarus and Poland. Patryk Krezolek is the biggest young name of this forward group and I expect him to do quite well offensively this year. This could be a huge breakout year for him and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him representing Poland at quite a few international events. This group is supremely talented and there is no line here that wouldn’t be in the top 6 of most PHL teams. A lot of teams would love to even have Lopuski or Mularczyk, whom I couldn’t find a spot for in my initial roster. This group should have no problem being as strong as the one GKS Katowice showed last year.
Defensemen
Martin Cakajik – Dusan Devecka
Patryk Wajda – Oskar Jaskiewicz
Damian Tomasik – Marcin Kolusz
Juuso Salmi – Miika Franssila
Other Defensemen: Oskar Krawczyk, Tomasz Skokan
The defense posses some of the top Polish defensemen. There are some really good imports surrounding them making this one of the best defenses in Poland. A big thing I like about this group is how many players are able to contribute on the offensive end. You don’t see a lot of defenses in Poland with such an aggressive defense attack. Oskar Jaskiewicz joined the team from Podhale. The 23-year-old is a really strong two-way defenseman with a preference for the defensive side. He reportedly had offers to move over to North America but chose to stay in Poland with a big part being head coach Risto Dufva. Patryk Wajda also made a similar choice of jumping from Podhale to GKS Katowice. The national team defender is a force on the back end. The best things come in threes and Marcin Kolusz was the third defensemen to make the move from Podhale. Kolusz already had a great career as a forward, but has found a second life to his career as a defenseman. His strong skating and puck handling skills really compliment the position well. He is able to effortlessly rush the puck up the ice. Dusan Devecka and Martin Cakajik are very similar, both are 39-year-old Slovakian defensemen in their third season with GKS Katowice. They are both all-around players that really bring a lot to the team as well. They are the kinda players you like to have young players learn more from, giving their longevity in leagues stronger than the PHL. One of those young players is Tomasz Skokan who plays a similar game to them. He will be out for a while with an injury, but when he returns this should be a big year for the 21-year-old defensemen. I love an aggresive defense that contributes offensively and GKS Katowice has that. This unit could contend for the best in the PHL.
Goalies
Robin Rahm
Michal Kieler
The goaltending group is just as good as the offense and defense. Robin Rahm was a great choice to take over the reins from Kevin Lindskoug. Though If I had to bet my life on anything it would have been GKS Katowice signing a Finnish goaltender to be honest. Rahm made it to the Swedish Hockey League and posted okay numbers there, but also had a two-year ban for steroids. Rahm was a much better goaltender in the Allsvenskan posting save percentages in the .920%s. He also did well in Denmark but last year posted his lowest career save percentage, .901%, since 2013-14. This came in the EBEL, which is a very strong league. Rahm should be a great goalie in the PHL, but the goal is a championship and GKS Tychy’s offense showed no struggles against HC Bolzano goaltender Leland Irving, who posted a .922 SV% in the EBEL. Now, this is a very minor thing, but again the goal for GKS Katowice is a championship and the biggest roadblock to it is GKS Tychy. Both teams are so close so extremely minor things were used to make my decision.
Prediction: 2nd
Yes GKS Katowice is an all-around good team. Every aspect of this team is at the top of the PHL. There is just one team that is slightly better in my opinion, but hey GKS Katowice won the first battle of the two teams 4-3, so maybe they can pull it off.
Despite all that seems to go wrong in Polish hockey the light at the end of the tunnel has been the amount of great young talent that Poland has in their system right now. This is the deepest depth of young talent Poland has had this century. Regardless of what happens in regards to management and coaching with the talent that Poland has coming, they should be able to push forward. In this list, I wanted to rank Poland’s young talent to create a better picture of what the future look likes. This is part 2 of the series as we look at the players ranked 16 through 13.
Rank – Player Name (Position), Age During Next Hockey Season, Team
#16 – Patryk Wysocki (D), 20, KRS Heilongjiang. At just 19-years-old, Wysocki has already played hockey in Belarus, China, and Poland. He played in Poland and Belarus on the professional level in each country’s top league. In China, he appeared in the Molodyozhnaya Hokkeinaya Liga (MHL). The MHL is the top level of junior hockey in Russia. Wysocki moved to China midseason after being recruited by Andrei Parfenov. Wysocki is a defensive first guy and able to read the game well. He isn’t overly physical but does not shy away from it either. He will be able to play a lot of minutes, clog up shooting lanes, and disrupt passing lanes.
He was ready to play professional hockey starting at the age of 17 in Belarus, which is quite the feat. He was the only U18 defensemen in the league for the 2016-17 season, that was not a part of Team Belarus U20. The following season, Wysocki returned to Poland to play for MH Automatyka Gdansk, recording 2 assists in 38 games. For 2018-19, he moved to a stronger club in GKS Katowice but spent a lot of time with PZHL U23. He had 3 assists in 39 PHL games before moving over to KRS Heilongjiang.
In China, he had 2 goals and 2 assists in 20 games. His first goal in the MHL was actually his first goal since the 2016-17 U18s. KRS Heilongjiang was struggling hard and no single player could save the team, but Wysocki was able to come in and play some large minutes for the team. There he averaged 21:57 minutes a game. That is the 4th most among defensemen on the team and 11th most in the league (min 10 games played).
Wysocki like other top 4 defensemen on KRS Heilongjiang was put into a tough a role with harsh minutes and almost constantly being under siege. Usually, that is something I feel wouldn’t benefit a player at all, but considering Wysocki’s skill set it gave him the most chances to practice it. It will be interesting to see what is next for Wysocki as his options are pretty open. His former Head Coach in GKS Katowice said in an interview to Hokej.net, “If he wants to, maybe I’ll be able to get him to North America next season.” So far no announcements have been made by GKS Katowice, who did expect him to return to the team after the MHL season had finished. Katowice haven’t announced a new contract with the defenseman. They also added national team defensemen, Oskar Jaskiewicz and Patryk Wajda. Considering part of the reason he left for a chance in China was minutes, I wouldn’t imagine he returns to GKS Katowice.
#15 – Maciej Witan (F), 18, KH 58 Sanok. Sanok’s favorite son is also one of the top forward prospects in Poland. Witan is an incredible offensive talent and he needs to be on bigger stages than what he has played on. Witan has been one of the best players for Poland at the U18s. This year, he had 6 goals and 9 assists in 5 games. He had 9 points (5G, 4A) last year at the U18s. His two performances actually made him all-time leading scorer for Poland U18 at IIHF events.
In terms of professional and junior teams, Witan has dominated there offensively as well. In Poland’s U20 league, the 5’8 forward posted 16 goals and 22 assists in 17 games. Witan has played the last two seasons in the 3rd tier of Slovakian hockey with KH 58 Sanok. There he has 31 points (13G, 18A) in 35 games. It’s not a league where many U18 players play and Witan is the all-time leading U18 scorer for the league. There are only 16 U18 players though with at least 10 games played. There is simply no doubt that Witan has the skill to be a great player, but he has to be tested against better talents. He was able to get 3 PHL games in last year as well putting up one assist. To even really judge him as a prospect or a player I need to see him against tougher talents. If he is not going to go abroad to play he needs to be in the PHL next year. There is nothing left for him to gain in Sanok.
#14 – Sebastian Brynkus (F), 18, Cracovia Krakow. Brynkus had quite the blow up this season. A year ago, he only got 2 games in at the U18s, then had 2 points in 19 games with SMS U20 Katowice. It was a kinda situation where he was outshined by other players and maybe couldn’t get the best opportunities because of that. When I interviewed David Leger, the former head juniors coach, Brynkus was a player he brought up unprompted as a part of Poland’s future core. Brynkus proved that to be true this year.
After only getting 2 IIHF games with team Poland last year, Brynkus had 10 this year after being named to both the U20 and U18 national teams. At the U20 stage, he was one of the best players on the team and the led team in goals with 4. He then returned to the U18s and just slaughtered his competition with 4 goals and 12 assists. He led the tournament in assists and points. His 16 points were also a Divison 2 Group A record for points in a single tournament. Brynkus also played full time in the PHL this year and not just with PZHL U23. He recorded 36 games with Cracovia Krakow and played 6 games in their run to the PHL finals. Brynkus was the only U18 player to play a regular role in the PHL this year. He didn’t score like past top U18 players who got that opportunity had, but that may just be the result of Cracovia not having the same ice time chances.
Like I mentioned with Lukasz Kaminski, there should be increased roles for them in Cracovia. He is a guy who always is in the right spot and able to get open. He has great patience and that aids his good shot when it comes to beating goalies with ease. He can also be quite the set-up man as well.
#13 – Oskar Jaskiewicz (D), 23, GKS Katowice. The oldest player on the list and certainly currently the best U23 defensemen. Jaskiewicz is a two-way defenseman that is strongest on the defensive end. He has quite the shot as well. He loves to pinch up on plays in the offensive zone. He has been allowed to make the mistakes that a player really needs to just experience over years of professional hockey that have him ready for almost any situation. Valtonen credited him as the defensive leader on Podhale this past season.
He has pretty much been a full-time defenseman in the PHL since he was 17. Only four other non-junior team players have been able to play at least 20 games in the PHL at such a young age. This includes national team legend Adam Borzecki, and current national team defensemen Bartlomiej Bychawski. Since then he has played 272 games in the PHL recording 31 goals and 51 assists. That is the most points recorded ever by a u23 defensemen in Poland. He made his senior IIHF debut this year at the World Championships.
Jaskiewicz has already secured his spot on team Poland for his career and if he stopped developing he would still be a really good player. He left Podhale this offseason and was originally considering options in North America. He instead signed a two-year contract with GKS Katowice. Part of the reason, he signed in Katowice is to continue learning under a Finnish coach and especially a great coach like Risto Dufva. Dufva is an amazing coach based on his career accomplishments and I’m curious to see what he can do with Jaskiewicz development wise.
This week in Polish hockey saw GKS Katowice take another former Podhale player, Cracovia invest in some young defensemen, and GKS Tychy getting a lot stronger, while outside the PHL Bettahar has found a DEL 2 club.
Noureddine Bettahar – One year deal with EC Kassel Huskies. Bettahar is going to be extending his stay in the German second league and with his fourth team in 4 years. Bettahar will be reuniting with Tim Kehler, one of his former coaches, in the team announcement of the signing Kehler said, “We are delighted to have signed Noureddine Bettahar for next season. I already know him from my time in Frankfurt in 2014. Noureddine is a young player who has not exhausted his full potential yet. He is a tall guy, but also runs well and also plays physically. I think that with the right environment and a given chance, Noureddine will be playing a strong season in Kassel.” (Translated via Google Translate) Bettahar was set to make his senior team Poland debut last year, til being concussed in a practice prior to the EIHC. This concussion ended up derailing his season as he missed a large chunk of the year and did not produce as well offensively when he returned to the line-up. He was not appointed to any other national team rosters. His national team status is once again up in the air.
Oskar Jaskiewicz – 2 year deal with GKS Katowice. National team defensemen Oskar Jaskiewicz has become the third national team player to switch to Katowice this offseason joining Mateusz Michalski and Patryk Wajda. The soon to be 23-year-old defensemen is one of Poland’s most promising young defensemen. It was rumored he was originally looking at offers in North America. He attributed part of the reason he signed in Katowice was Finnish coach Risto Dufva.
Radoslaw Sawicki – 2 year deal with GKS Katowice. GKS Katowice also extended the contract of Sawicki for 2 more years. The 23-year-old center had 25 points (7G, 18A) in 42 games last season.
Henrich Jabornik – 1 year deal JKH GKS Jastrzebie. The first new import in the PHL is here as Henrich Jabornik inked a one year deal with Jastrzebie. The 28-year-old represented Slovakia at the U18 and U20 IIHF World Championships in his junior career. He has spent in the last 3 years in the Erste Liga most recently with Dunaújvárosi Acélbikák. There he had 10 goals and 27 assists in 44 games.
Mike Cichy and Alex Szczechura to stay with GKS Tychy, and be joined by Jesse Rohtla. It appears that Mike Cichy and Alex Szczechura are close to new deals to stay in GKS Tychy as well is Jess Rohtla. Cichy and Szczechura have been two of the top scorers in the PHL since they arrived in 2014-15 and 2015-16. The two have played together every year since 2015-16. Rohtla arrived in the PHL in 2017-18 and lead the league in points with 53 (13G, 40). He returned to Poland this season and again played with GKS Katowice, where he had 44 points (22G, 22A) in 42 games. Now it appears the playmaking center is joining two of the other top scoring forwards in the PHL.
Patryk Gosztyla and Mateusz Bezwinski training with Cracovia Krakow. It appears Cracovia has invested in injecting some young defensemen in their line up next year. Gosztyla had played in the Slovak juniors system since 2015-16. The 19-year-old played last year for HK 32 Liptovsky Mikulas U20 and represented Poland at the U20 World Championship. Mateusz Bezwinski was a standout player at the U18s for Poland. The 17-year-old played mostly with SMS Torun last year, where he had 33 points (21G, 12A) in 22 games. He can move up and down the lineup.
Gdansk may have their goalie in Tomas Fucik. According to hokej.net, the 25-year-old netminder is close to a deal with Gdansk. Fucik previously played in Poland from 2016 to 2018 with JKH GKS Jastrzebie. He posted sv% above .930 in both his seasons where he played a total of 42 games. He spent most of last season in the Tipsort Liga with MsHK Zilina.
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