BRANTFORD, Ont. — It’s 11:25 a.m. on the first Friday in October, and Vladimir Dravecky is on the massage table inside TD Civic Centre getting treatment from Brantford Bulldogs athletic therapist Thomas Byrne.
He’s talking about his first taste of The Keg the night before with the team’s assistant general manager, Justin Ismael. As his teammates wander past the therapy room’s open door to head home to rest following their morning skate, Dravecky is just getting started on his daily routine.
On his phone, it’s the intermission of his father Vladimir Dravecky Sr.’s game back home in Czechia with HC Oceláři Třinec, one of the country’s top clubs. Vladimir Sr., 40, is in his 25th season of professional hockey, 12th with Trinec and eighth as one of their alternate captains. He started as an offensive player, and his son thinks he could still play a top-six role, but says he has become more of a defensive player and mentor for the team’s younger players. This year, Dravecky Sr. is playing on a line with one of his son’s close friends, Petr Sikora. Though he’s a forward, he played D during one playoff run and once even played goalie when the team was in a bind.
“He wants to help the young players and help them become NHL players. That’s what he likes is to help the younger players. But he’s still really good,” Dravecky Jr. says after hopping off the table.
Dravecky Jr. talks about his dad as his idol and the reason for his daily rituals, saying they’re “very similar.” They’ll work out together on family vacations, and Dravecky Jr. is now working with his dad’s strength and conditioning coach in the offseason, though his dad trains on his own when they’re at home because “after 20 years, he knows what to do for himself.”
“He’s 40,” Dravecky Jr. stresses for a second time. “He’s taking care of his body and doing everything to still play. It’s unreal. To be honest, I think he could play to 45, but he wants to move forward.”
Around TD Civic Centre, Dravecky Jr., a top 2026 NHL Draft defenseman who left Rogle BK in Sweden — where he played three games in the SHL a year ago — to join the Bulldogs as an import for his draft year, has quickly developed a reputation for his own off-ice habits.
When he first arrived in Brantford, he told general manager Spencer Hyman, “I need two and a half hours on the ice a day.”
“OK, well, we practice for an hour and a half,” Hyman told him.
“OK, well, I’ll do an hour with a skills coach or by myself,” Dravecky replied.
Bulldogs head coach Jay McKee says they’ve had a hard time getting him off the ice, even on scheduled off days.
“Trust me, your body does need some recovery,” McKee has had to tell him.
McKee also says “his practice habits are incredible” and that they’ve made a real difference in their skates, because “it shows other guys how you can be in practice.”
“In 11 years in this league, he’s probably the best practice player that I’ve ever seen,” McKee said. “And it’s probably from him practicing with men in Europe. Everything is 100 percent. He’s vocal, and that’s one of the biggest things that I think separates a pro practice from junior is it’s very vocal. I’ve had (Bulldogs alums) Florian Xhekaj and Jorian Donovan come back on their breaks for a practice with us, and I’ve asked them ‘What’s the biggest difference?’ and I know the answer, but I want the players to hear it because we preach it all the time and it’s hard to get all the time. But he’s very hungry. Vladdy has been incredible.”
Vince Laise, the team’s associate coach, describes Dravecky, a 6-foot, 189-pound right-shot D, as “dialed” and has noticed that even after getting to the rink early, shooting pucks, and getting on early, he usually also stays for another 20-30 minutes after practice. After all of that, they’ll still find him in the gym (where staff say he’s also a standout next to his peers), and then getting treatment, and then rolling out on his own — including on game days — before going home long after his teammates have.
“Most guys run out of here because they think they need more rest. He’s got the athletic side of it down, and he’s got the mindset of a pro,” Laise said. “His passes are snapping on the money. He’s jumping through holes. He calls for pucks. And I do believe that having a father who is still playing professional hockey and him growing up and his dad saying, ‘No, this is the way to have a career,’ it’s obvious the influence.”
After his work ethic, the first thing McKee, Hyman and Laise all noticed about Dravecky is that he has a bullish confidence about him.
He’s the guy who, when Laise asks him, “Vladdy, you feeling good today!?” in the morning, he deadpans back, “I always feel good, baby.”
“He’s got tons of swagger. He’s walking the line on that. But I do appreciate it because he backs it up with his work, so I’m OK with it from a personal standpoint,” Laise said. “I think it’s over the line if you’re just saying it and it’s fluff, but he’s quite obviously a grinder.”
That confidence has led him from team to team in search of better opportunities, though, too.
The 17-year-old has already played in Czechia, Slovakia, Sweden and now Canada. At 15, he left home and used one of his three citizenships with Czechia, Slovakia and the U.S. to play for Slovakia’s U18 program, which models like USA Hockey’s NTDP and plays against the second-highest men’s league level in Slovakia. There, he negotiated so that he was the only player on the team who was also still allowed to play for his men’s team. Ask him why he later left and made the switch to the Czech national team before the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, and he says, “It wasn’t working well.” Ask him about his move to Rogle and later the decision to leave there for the Bulldogs after one season, and he says he liked it there, liked their style of play and development model, but that the coaches “were always talking about defense” and he “didn’t want to wait until somebody was going to get injured” to get a real opportunity to stick with the SHL team.
“I know I need to improve my defense,” he said. But he also added this: “I’m an offensive defenseman. I think I can defend two-way, but I’m a highly offensive defenseman who is high IQ and makes plays to make my teammates better and help them. I’m a good leader, very good leader, and I love to win.”
That attitude has been embraced by the Bulldogs.
Mention it to Hyman, and he’ll answer quickly: “He’s William Nylander. He’s Willy. That’s exactly what he is. He’s a defenseman, but he’s Willy. That’s how I see him.”
“He knows he’s going to be a pro. He’s going to go about his business. He’s going to be a point guy,” Hyman said. “He has to learn how to play defense better, and that’s where Jay comes in, and that’s why he came I think is because Jay is amazing at developing D, and now this kid is going to learn how to play North American style hockey before getting drafted.”
And that last part is true.
“Jay was the reason why I went here because when you have a coach like this who played like 800 games in the NHL, that’s unreal. He can show me things, tell me things about his career, and he has so many experiences,” Dravecky said. “This just can help me for my career, and that’s also why I made the decision to come here, because you don’t have many coaches like this around the world.”
When Blues first-rounder Adam Jiricek returned from his NHL camp and they decided to move Dravecky from PP1 to PP2, the coaching staff wondered how he would take it because they didn’t think he’d like the news.
“He didn’t miss a beat,” according to McKee.
“He said ‘Yep, I’m good, whatever you guys need’ and then he practiced like a pro,” McKee said. “He’s a very confident kid, but wherever you need him and whatever you need him to do, he’ll do it. He has that mentality.”
When he started a little slowly by his standards, registering one goal in his first three games in the OHL and turning the puck over a fair amount, McKee decided not to pull back on his reins, however, preferring to give him the first 10-15 games of the season to learn for himself what he could do at the junior level.
“He’s feeling out the league still, and I’m OK with him making mistakes right now because it’s early in the year and you don’t win championships in September-October,” McKee said ahead of Game 4 of the season. “And if he has the ability to do some of these things and we’re getting positive results out of it, if I shut him down early, we’re not going to get the most out of the player. We also learn a lot about him that way, too. I’ve seen a lot of video on him, but we need to also see him in games.”
By Game 12, he had racked up four goals and 12 points and was plus-11. Laise and McKeee had found that “he’s more physical than people give him credit for” and “great in terms of coachability.”
“I don’t want to characterize him as set in something,” McKee said. “I see an offensively gifted, high-risk defenseman. (But) I think he does defend well. That’s not taking away from him defensively. He gets in on guys quick, he’s got an active stick, he’s very alert. I think he does have a good defensive game to him. He’s not one-dimensional, I don’t want to put him as that.”
Dravecky is averaging more than 22 minutes per game so far this season. (Courtesy of the Brantford Bulldogs)
They’re also playing him a lot, even on a blue line that features three drafted NHL prospects plus fifth-year overeager Lucas Moore. Through his first few weeks in the league, he’s averaging more than 22 minutes per game.
“The tools are there,” Hyman said. “He skates like the wind. The instincts are there.”
That play and those tools, after a strong showing at Czechia’s three nations tournament with Switzerland and Finland this summer, have put him firmly in the mix for Czechia’s World Junior team as an underager this year.
Brantford may not be his last stop before the NHL, either, as multiple NCAA schools have made trips to see him play and have interest in him.
“I love hockey, so the moving doesn’t mean nothing for me,” he said when asked about being away from home since 15. “Everybody is asking if I miss my family. Of course, I’m really close with my family. But I’m doing what I love, and this just makes me happy, and I’m staying in touch with my family. This is my dream, and I’m living my dream.”
Having both of the Bulldogs’ other imports be Czech teammates and friends in Jiricek and Adam Benak has helped with the transition, though, he says, and he’s really happy in Brantford.
One thing that’ll never change? His unwavering confidence.
“I want to make it. I think I can be there and I’m going to do everything for that,” he said. “(The OHL), it’s a very good level. When the old players came now (after NHL camps), it’s much better the level. But I was with the pros. I don’t want to be cocky, but if I’m honest with you, I’m a little bit higher with the passes and the speed in practice. But in the games, it’s different. But it’s because I was with the pros always. That’s why I’m like that. I feel very good here.”