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SCoC Draft Profiles: Jakub Skarek is a great goalie with a weird quirk

Good at home, shaky abroad, but consistent enough to warrant a looksee.

HC Stadion Litomerice website

Analysis:

There are actually two Jakub Skareks.

The first one is the Jakub Skarek in the Czech Republic. Czech Republic Jakub Skarek is a hard nut to crack, finding pucks with ease, tracks plays easily, makes crazy, flexible saves at the drop of a hat with that impressive 6’4 size that he can recover from shockingly well from a guy his size, has wonderful rebound control, and fantastic save-%’s over the course of any of the many places and teams he’s ended up going over the years. And all over the place he’s been, both playing in the Extraliga and the 2nd league.

And then there’s international Jakub Skarek, and honestly...that’s probably why he’s going to find himself dropping out of the 2nd round altogether. In international competition, he’s a career .872 in Save-%, of which the worst came this year with a .801 Save-% in 7 games in international competition, and a .848 Save-% in 5 games at the World Juniors. I honestly don’t know what the hell happens to him during these times since having the “best” of his kin around him should probably keep him up like his comparable Lukas Dostal, but for whatever reason he seems to just get his game knocked completely out of him during international tournaments.

The best I can say as for why is that if Skarek gets a goal-against, maybe his confidence seems to plummet. Low confidence leads to crappy goals, crappy goals leads to further bad play, etc. etc. Which is a real shame. Skarek was slated to be the #1 goalie among European skaters until the end of this year, where international Skarek ended up making him drop in comparison to his more cool-headed compatriot.

With time, Skarek could probably make for a fantastic player, but Skarek’s development will likely come with more building of confidence with the Lahti Pelicans in 2018-19 and with more pro-level experience. Being patient with him will likely be the biggest thing. But for the price of a third rounder? His sheer flexibility and his ability to recover from second chance opportunities definitely makes him worth a shot.

Player Rankings:

2nd by NHL Central Scouting among European Skaters

95th by FutureConsiderations

Jakub Skarek Statline

Year Team League Games Played Save-%
Year Team League Games Played Save-%
2014-15 HC Dukla Jihlava U16 Czech U16 36 0.937
HC Dukla Jihlava U18 Czech U18 1 0.833
HC Dukla Jihlava U20 Czech U20 1 Shutout
Czech Republic U16 International 13 0.911
2015-16 HC Dukla Jihlava U18 Czech U18 3 0.894
HC Dukla Jihlava U20 Czech U20 9 0.939
HC Dukla Jihlava Czech 2nd League 20 0.931
Czech Republic U16 WHC-17 3 0.863
Czech Republic U17 International 12 0.898
2016-17 HC Dukla Jihlava U20 Czech U20 1 0.95
HC Dukla Jihlava Czech-2nd League 28 0.925
HC Sparta Praha Extraliga 4 0.946
Czech Republic U18 WJC-18 4 0.853
Czech Republic U18 International 11 0.899
Czech Republic U20 World Juniors 3 0.884
Czech Republic U20 International 5 0.898
2017-18 HC Dukla Jihlava Extraliga 21 0.913
HC Stadion Litomerice Czech-2 10 0.942
Czech Republic U19 International 6 0.865
Czech Republic U20 World Juniors 5 0.848
Czech Republic U20 International 7 0.801