Raiders defenceman Vojtech Vochvest has now played over 114 games in the WHL between Kamloops, Prince George, and now here in Prince Albert. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

From Czechia to Canada

Learning about Czechian hockey and culture with Vojtech Vochvest

Feb 11, 2025 | 11:31 AM

For players in Canada, most people know the pathway to get to junior hockey and the NHL. You go from playing in a house league growing up, graduate to AA around the U11 and U13 years, on to AAA in your U15 years where a WHL team can draft you, and then in a player’s U18 years they either continue to play AAA or they end up with a spot on a WHL team.

Fans of the WHL have their favourite European stars who they are introduced to when they first come to Canada, and they continue to cheer them on as they go on to have successful pro careers like Raiders alumni Leon Draisaitl and Alexsai Protas, but how do they get here? When do they first start preparing to come to Canada? When do they start playing competitive? When do they step on the ice for the first time?

Raiders defenceman Vojtech Vochvest from Mlada Boleslav sat down with me to answer all these questions and more.

“My dad was working as an equipment manager back in my hometown for our hometown hockey team, and when I was three or four he took me on the ice after a men’s team practice, so that was the first time I was on the ice,” he said.

For minor hockey, it’s fairly similar in Czechia as it is here in Canada. First you start playing minor hockey in your similar house leagues within your city or surrounding communities. It’s around Grade 4 where things start to get competitive, same as how AA programs start around U11 in Canada, where players will start to travel to other cities to take on teams that are similarly competitive.

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“There’s not too many players in Czechia as it’s smaller, there’s basically nothing other than two leagues. Everyone is placed in their hometown team until like U15 when you want to go to the better league. So I think U15 is like a start of the career.”

When the time comes for Czech players to make the trip overseas, that’s where the biggest difference is between North American players and the Europeans. While North American players are scouted in person, the European players need to first express their interest in coming to Canada.

“(Those conversations started) when I was 16 I believe or 17. I always wanted to play out of my country. If it’s Sweden, Finland or Canada or the States, I just wanted to try it somewhere else and I think it was the season before I got drafted (about halfway through the season) when I started to speak with the team. Then it turns out I end up with the Kamloops Blazers.”

Moving out of your own home is hard enough when you graduate in your home country, but at 18 years old Vochvest was instead moving to a completely new country where people didn’t even speak the same language as him. Despite that though, Vochvest had nothing but excitement to come overseas for an opportunity in the WHL.

“Actually there was no stress at all. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t stressed, I was just super excited to go to Canada. It was kind of my dream. When I came up, practices were hard and everything and when I was sitting on a plane for the first time, I was just super excited. I was also traveling with my good buddy Matteo Koci, so it was a lot of fun when we were together in camps.”

Besides the on ice side of things, there are other factors that players have to get ready when they are going to come over from another country. Czeschins do take English classes in school, and Vochvest’s parents enrolled him in extra English lessons as well to help him get more comfortable with the language. He came to Canada fluent in English.

Still though, there is a bit of a language barrier sometimes because of the thought process it takes for him to answer.

“I’m not saying I’m an English speaker, but I can understand everything and I think I speak well. Sometimes I catch myself thinking in English, but sometimes it’s super hard because when you talk to me, I heard in English and I have to transfer to Czech, answer in Czech, and then transfer back in English, so it’s a long process.”

According to his teammates, sometimes when things get heated between Vochvest and his opponents, Vochvest’s chirps will come out in English with a little Czech mixed in.

Because the hockey community in Czechia is so much smaller than what it is in Canada, Vochvest says that he knows pretty all the Czech born players here in Canada to some degree and has either played with or against most of them. Even the ones he didn’t play with or against like Matej Pekar and Radim Mrtka in Seattle, there is still a kinship between countrymen.

“There’s a Czech guy, Pekar, and he’s an 07 I believe, I didn’t have a chance to know him because he’s two years younger. But I know when we met on the ice, we just look at each other and we knew that we’re going to see each other after the game and have a chat because it’s awesome to have somebody to speak Czech with. You’re kind of friends with everyone.”

With the recent success of the Czechs on the national stage like the World Juniors, there’s a lot of pride for the players from Czechia here in Canada.

“As Czech guys, we are super proud of being Czechs cause of the history and everything we’ve been through.I remember when my dad was here and you guys played the national anthem before the game. We just love that, it was such a proud moment and we were grateful for that.”

Since coming the Raiders, Vochvest has turned into a reliable defenceman that can be used in all situations against any team’s top unit to shut them down.