The secret ingredient?

Amidst constant questions about bringing Peter Forsberg back to the Avalanche, François Giguère continues to express supreme confidence in Colorado’s current roster. The Avalanche have a logjam of scoring talent at forward, but where does a 30 year old NHL rookie from the Czech leagues fit in?

Following the high profile free agent signings of Ryan Smyth and Scott Hannan, FG has been prone to say, again, that he is ‘very satisfied with the way our roster looks’. There is however, more meaning to this quote than solely the acquisitions of Smyth and Hannan, they also seem to refer to Jaroslav Hlinka. At the press conference announcing the signing of Smyth and Hannan, FG spoke these words about him:

"Hlinka is a guy we're anticipating a lot of things from," Giguere said. "He was the best player in the Czech League the past two years. Our scout, (right wing) Milan Hejduk, highly recommended him."

As awareness of the Hlinka signing spreads, opinions around the avalanche community range from pegging Hlinka as a high end second line talent to being a roster booster for the Avs’ new AHL affiliate at Lake Erie which ‘needs’ players. I personally feel Hlinka was brought here to be an impact support player on a team that hungers for Stanley Cup playoff success.

First, a few facts and observations we know about Jaroslav Hlinka. Finding information on this Czech player is difficult, but we know that he is a playmaker with ‘speed to burn’. Style wise he has been compared to David Výborný and is the same size and Marek Svatos. Usually a center, Jaroslav has played winger as well. Considered the best player in the Czech Extraliga, he has also been a leader for Czech World Championship teams. Last year, Hlinka led his HC Sparta team to their league championship posting 19 goals and 38 assists (57 points) in 46 games.
Over a point a game is a good number for a player jumping to the NHL but how will those numbers translate as Hlinka moves into ‘the majors’? However you dice it, the premier Czech league is not the NHL, not even close. No one knows how he will transition, but I leave you with this thought, in the Extraliga only PRIMARY assists are counted, no secondary assists figured into those numbers. Can a player who dominates lesser players succeed among equals? Hlinka could become a missing ingrediant as well.

We know that FG and the Avs are expecting immediate contributions Hlinka. His statistics and tournament experience suggest that he is a matured and skilled hockey veteran. As a playmaker he can compliment any number of the Avs’ scoring players and give the Coach Quenneville the chance to roll 3 potent scoring lines. For example, a 3rd line of Hlinka, Arnason, and Svatos is no longer of case of odd man out for a scoring winger (Svatos) but now a legitimate scoring threat that can press the puck against 2nd and 3rd defensive pairings.

Questions we can ask ourselves until the season starts are: How is he defensively? Will he adjust to the NHL style of play with more talent, strength, and rink size? Will Hlinka and Hejduk make jokes about you in Czech? Is he really the secret ingredient to a Stanley Cup winning team over say, a Peter Forsberg?

Videos
http://zlatahelma.hokej.cz/admin/_vi... - Assists on play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI8D7... – Assists 1st goal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvjzW... – Scores second and last goals, demonstrates overall league skill level as less than great.