{"id":29940,"date":"2018-05-28T16:31:45","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T20:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=29940"},"modified":"2018-05-28T16:45:37","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T20:45:37","slug":"montreal-canadiens-sign-michal-moravcik-and-david-sklenicka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/05\/28\/montreal-canadiens-sign-michal-moravcik-and-david-sklenicka\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens sign Michal Morav\u010d\u00edk and David Skleni\u010dka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/canadiens\/\" target=\"_self\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a> have further added depth to their prospect pool with the signings of Czech defencemen\u00a0<strong>Michal Morav\u010d\u00edk<\/strong> and <strong>David Skleni\u010dka<\/strong> earlier today. The pair have each been signed to two-year entry-level contracts at $925,000 plus signing bonuses. They will likely report to the Laval Rockets in the AHL at the beginning of the season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">REVISED \u2013 Canadiens signed free agent defensemen David Sklenicka and Michal Moravcik earlier today. Both players agreed to terms on a two-year entry-level contract. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GoHabsGo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#GoHabsGo<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/12nrjHQsAX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/12nrjHQsAX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadiensMTL\/status\/1001143436450435072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 28, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Michal Morav\u010d\u00edk and David Skleni\u010dka sign with the Montreal Canadiens<\/h1>\n<p>Michal Morav\u010d\u00edk and David Skleni\u010dka had their eyes on the KHL initially, but were swayed to come to Canada instead. Montreal general manager, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/bergema01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marc Bergevin<\/a>, added two talented prospects who stood out in the World Championships as well as HC Plzen of the Czech Extraliga.<\/p>\n<h3>Michal Morav\u010d\u00edk<\/h3>\n<p>Morav\u010d\u00edk is a 23-year-old solid defenceman with high potential and low risk. He&#8217;s not as tough as his size would suggest. Though he doesn&#8217;t throw the body very often, he still can stand up opponents and break up an offensive rush. Morav\u010d\u00edk also doesn&#8217;t take many penalties which is good for the Canadiens. With Plzen, he posted five goals and 11 assists over the course of 52 games with a plus\/minus rating of +25. The 6&#8217;4 blueliner had an excellent outing in the playoffs, recording three goals and four helpers in 10 games.<\/p>\n<p>He made a name for himself during Worlds in Denmark this year. Aside from his one goal and two assists in eight games, he finished with a 5v5 Corsi of 64%, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehockeyninja.com\/pokrocile-statistiky-pro-ms-2018-iihf-worlds-2018-data\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Hockey Ninja<\/a>.\u00a0Morav\u010d\u00edk showed off his impressive IQ with multiple smart breakout passes and accurate shooting from the point.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NT1DHfioiP0<\/p>\n<h3>David Skleni\u010dka<\/h3>\n<p>Skleni\u010dka is the smaller and quicker defenceman of the two. Standing at 5&#8217;11, he&#8217;s more agile than\u00a0Morav\u010d\u00edk and will\u00a0often join an offensive rush. He will make some errors, however. He needs to work on reading defensive zones better, as he will cough up the puck or make a bad pass too often. Though he still has some development to be NHL-ready, he still is turning heads.\u00a0While also playing for Plzen, the 21-year-old posted three goals and 11 assists throughout 49 games with a +17 rating. In the playoffs,\u00a0Skleni\u010dka only recorded one goal and one assist in 10 games. His low numbers are not much of a testament to his ability being that he&#8217;s only 21 years old and playing in the highest league in the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n<p>In the World Championships, he recorded two assists in eight games. One of his helpers came on a Morav\u010d\u00edk goal. According to The Hockey Ninja,\u00a0Skleni\u010dka posted a 56% Corsi\u00a0during the tournament. He has high offensive potential but definitely needs to shore up his defensive game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here is Michal Morav\u010d\u00edk&#39;s goal from the World Championships. The guy making the backhand pass? That&#39;s David Skleni\u010dka. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Habs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Habs<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/01wurtez8s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/01wurtez8s<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jared Book (@jaredbook) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jaredbook\/status\/1001106851038158848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 28, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>What This Means for Montreal<\/h2>\n<p>Bergevin has once again added younger prospects to Montreal&#8217;s pool. After signing free agent, <strong>Alexandre Alain<\/strong>, as well as draftees <strong>Jake Evans<\/strong> and <strong>Lucas Vejdemo<\/strong> (all centremen), he has bolstered the roster for Laval. Each player is expected to spend time in the AHL to develop their game.\u00a0Morav\u010d\u00edk is the closest to being NHL-ready but will probably still start the season with the Rockets. These players are all low-risk signings who each have potential to make an impact in Montreal one day.<\/p>\n<p>Main Image Credit:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/955064790\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 64.64646% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/955064790?et=FXzStydeQO9a-e6qTrth7w&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=K_qvi79NHDADNT068lbuO86w4jRra07Fvck_ap4XuLI=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"384\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Montreal Canadiens have further added depth to their prospect pool with the signings of Czech defencemen\u00a0Michal Morav\u010d\u00edk and David Skleni\u010dka earlier today. The pair have each been signed to two-year entry-level contracts at $925,000 plus signing bonuses. They will likely report to the Laval Rockets in the AHL at the beginning of the season. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2461,"featured_media":29962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3271,34],"tags":[942,3358,3360,3359,152,38],"class_list":["post-29940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadiens","category-european-leagues","category-news","tag-czech-extraliga","tag-david-sklenicka","tag-hc-plzen","tag-michal-moravcik","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2461"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}