David Tomasek is The Great Unknown, this highly skilled Prague-born Swedish Hockey League scoring champion leaving the good life in Europe to test drive the NHL at 29 and see if he can be, at worst, a top-nine forward here.
At his first practice Thursday, the natural centre was on right wing with the best player in the world, Connor McDavid, and the annoying-to-play against Andrew Mangiapane. Now you can read a few different things into this line combination.
Like, is Tomasek just the placeholder for the rehabbing Zach Hyman, with Hyman out rehabbing his wrist until early November, or does coach Kris Knoblauch like having a right-shot, natural centre on a line with McDavid so he has a faceoff option on the other side of the ice?
It’s an easier adjustment to NHL school for Tomasek on the wing, with lesser defensive responsibilities, than at centre. And with McDavid and Leon Draisaitl clearly locked into the 1 and 1a centre spots and either Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Adam Henrique or Trent Frederic maybe experimenting as centre on a line with some offence and truculence, maybe Tomasek fits better on right wing in the top six, even if he looked a little lost in the first practice with McDavid having the puck most of the time.
If not with McDavid, then with Draisaitl?
All things to ponder, but the thing to most ponder is this:
The Oilers haven’t got much bang for the buck over the last 10 years bringing over older Euros, at forward or on defence, despite how good they were over there, or even longer back. We all recall Jiri Dopita — big star in Czechia and on the world stage, but after short stint with the Flyers, he had a 21-game look with Oilers in 2002, had trouble with the pace, and went home.
The days of Jaroslav Pouzar and Anatoli Semenov being instant fits as older Euro guys is long past. Joakim Nygard, Tomasek’s winger on the Swedish Farjestads team, had skill but couldn’t stay healthy and lasted 42 Oiler games. Swiss centre Gaetan Haas was defensively responsible and skated well but played 92 games over two seasons, mostly as a fourth-liner. Remember the Finnish wingers Lennart Petrell and Iiro Pakarinen, also the Russian defenceman Anton Belov, whose wife was as stunner but he wasn’t. Belov played 57 games, often as a depth defenceman. And Swedish offensive defencemen Joel Persson, who got into 13 games in 2019?
Tomasek, the MVP of the SHL last year, may well buck the trend. But he’s also getting a late NHL look. Still, he has a shot at being on the Czech Olympic team after helping them win gold at the 2024 world championship, so he’s a talent. The Oilers didn’t outbid several other NHL teams, signing Tomasek to that one-year, one-way, $1.2 million contract to just be on the team, somewhere.
The book on older Euros coming to the NHL is a mixed bag. Artemi Panarin was a stud, immediately, with Andrei Kuzmenko, Ilya Mikheyev, and Maxim Tsplakov of more recent vintage, contributing. But it’s not a long list. With so few prospects ready for Prime Time, the Oilers badly need Tomasek, who turns 30 next February, to be an offensive contributor, whatever position he plays.
As much as we’re keen to see how 21-year-olds Matt Savoie and Ike Howard look, maybe only one of them sticks right away. They need Tomasek to be good, now.
“Big guy, he’s obviously played lots of pro at a high level … you can tell that and see that,” said McDavid. “Great shooter and every single time he goes on a drill, he seems to score. That’s a talent not everybody has.”
Knoblauch is curious where Tomasek fits.
“I want to see how he is along the wall but to say he’ll be a winger or a centre, time will tell. It’s not just how they’re playing, it’s also how other guys are fitting and finding chemistry,” he said.
Tomasek came over to play two years of major junior in Belleville as a teenager for one-time Oilers coach George Burnett, but didn’t do enough to get drafted. He’s played in Czech, Russia, Finland and Sweden, and, now, 10 years after his Canadian agent lined him up with an Ontario junior team, after his 49 goals and 102 points in 99 games the last two years in Farjestads, he’s finally giving the NHL a try.
Why now? Why not?
“It was about not having regrets, not ever trying to come over here. One day I wanted to tell my kids or grandkids or my family that I did all I could. Took 10 years in Europe, a lot of work,” said the engaging Tomasek, who hooked up with fellow Czech and one-time Oilers defenceman Ladislav Smid when he got to Edmonton last month, with Smid giving him the lay of the land — the organization, the team, the city, all information soaked up by Tomasek.
“I had to learn more about myself, work on certain things and I still have to do it. I believe you work at getting better until you are basically done,” he said.
“Mix of factors on coming now. Obviously it was offers before, where I could play in a top role in Europe rather than be up and down over here. I believe I’m a better player than when I was 22 or 24. I understood a lot of things a touch later and some of it is mental, more confidence as you get older. You play some national team games, some world championship games. You start performing well in your European League and it builds up,” said Tomasek.
Retired Oilers forward Derek Ryan won the SHL scoring title, too, and came over at 28, fashioning a 600-game NHL career. But he became a valued role player. Is that Tomasek’s road?
Time will tell. The Oilers have McDavid and Draisaitl as the top dogs in the middle, eating up minutes, so is Tomasek swimming upstream when he’s a natural centre?
“It was the offer, the commitment from management. It was known that some players might leave because of the salary cap. I liked the way the Oilers play. I can take whatever role it is,” said Tomasek.
The Oilers are also a big deal in Tomasek’s homeland.
“Petr Klima, rest in peace, played here. I played with his sons. I played against Smid. I know Ales Hemsky played in Edmonton and Pouzar has a rink named after him back home. Lots of Czech player history with the Oilers and all the other greats. Gretzky, Messier, Jari Kurri. I’ve read books and magazines about that, and now I’m in the same town and place.”
And does it get any better than having 97 and 29 on the ice now?
“Who can say they’re skating with the best players in the world, right?”
“I get tons of questions back home from lots of people about that.”
He knows playing with McDavid is a huge challenge. McDavid owns the puck, and rightly so, and his wingers revolve around his orbit. Now, Tomasek may be a winger.
“In Europe I had the puck a lot and I had to create. Now it’s about understanding the game, getting used to the ice size, where to move … he’s such a special player with his speed and he likes to handle the puck. I was just trying to read off him,” he said.
“But it looks like this lineup could change a lot, you have to be ready to play with lots of people, get better each day, each week. I have played wing. I would say it’s easier to go from centre to wing than the opposite. No problem with that. Whatever’s needed from the coaches.”
All those stops in Europe? Why?
“I don’t like to get comfortable,” he said.
He played in Pardubice, Hemsky’s hometown, also in Prague. In Finland he was at Jyvaskyla. In Russia he was in Khabarovsk, 30 kilometres from the Chinese-Russian border, then in Oscar Klefbom’s birthplace, Karlstad, in Sweden.
The Oilers are preaching patience with Savoie and Howard, but what about the 29-year-old?
“Doesn’t matter what age you are, I think there should be some patience when this is your first year, but I’m trying not to think about. I’m trying not to stress about it. This has been my path,” he said.