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By Neil Urbanski -
Before the start of this past season, Minnesota Wild defensive prospect David Spacek achieved a slow, steady ascension up Minnesota’s defensive prospect ladder.
After the Wild took him in the 5th round of the 2022 NHL draft, he passed older players like Ryan O’Rourke (2nd round, 2020), Jack Peart (2nd round, 2021), and Kyle Masters (4th round, 2021), who Minnesota drafted higher than him. He wasn’t far behind Daemon Hunt (3rd round, 2020) and Carson Lambos (1st round, 2021) in the organizational pecking order.
But after a blunt, scathing interview his father gave to Czech media outlet iSport on Tuesday, it appears that Spacek’s days as a Wild prospect are numbered. David is from Czechia and is the son of former NHL defenseman Jaroslav Spacek. The NHL veteran of nearly 900 games has been a prominent figure in Czech hockey since his retirement in 2012.
David plays a key role for the Czech national team at the IIHF World Championship, playing on the second pairing and quarterbacking the second power-play unit. His father, Jaroslav, appeared on the Zimak podcast to discuss the team’s chances.
When asked about his son’s progress in professional hockey, Jaroslav decided to let loose with his opinions of David’s experiences in the Wild organization (all quotes translated with Google Translate):
I’m not happy about it at all…David’s game at the World [Championship] is to push to get out of here. … David didn't get a sniff up there [in the NHL], not a game, and they didn't even call him up. While the guys who played much worse than him were taken up there. They went there for a few days at least. David hasn't received a single call-up in two years. I'm very disappointed with the entire organization.
The players whom the Wild called up to the NHL ahead of Spacek included Iowa Wild captain Cameron Crotty, who appeared in one game, and Lambos, who didn’t play for the big club but spent six days with the team in early January.
David Jiricek, Spacek’s former Czech junior teammate, is also included on that list. The Wild acquired Jiricek in a blockbuster trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets in November (for a package that included Hunt). Minnesota called him up twice: once in January, when he played six games, and again for three weeks in March, when he didn’t play but practiced and traveled with the team.
Jiricek’s arrival pushed Spacek lower on the organizational totem pole, which irked his father. However, not as much as when Zeev Buium joined the NHL team straight out of college as a 19-year-old and played four games in the Wild’s playoff series against the Vegas Golden Knights, bumping Spacek another down another notch:
The playoffs came, a young kid comes in, drafted in the first round last year, who didn't even play a game on the farm, they signed him right away, and he's going to play a game against Vegas right away. At that moment, it assures you that David has no chance at all in this organization. … There are over 30 teams in the NHL, I believe that he will get a chance somewhere. Now the biggest job will be to find a club that will care about him and give him a chance.
Now, a prominent father speaking out on behalf of his son is certainly not unheard of, and there’s no guarantee that one speaks for the other. Still, it’s hard not to think that Spacek also feels his father’s blistering criticism of his experience in the Wild organization to some degree.
So, where do the Wild go from here? Spacek is only 22, an age at which most defensemen are still developing as professionals. This past season, he led all Iowa Wild defensemen in scoring while mainly playing on the second pair.
He also spent significant time as a power play quarterback, often on the first unit. That said, the Iowa Wild had the worst power play in the AHL, with a measly 13.8% success rate. Iowa was not a good team this year, so the special teams struggles are certainly not an indictment on Spacek alone.
However, at this point, it’s fair to wonder how high Spacek’s ceiling is as a prospect. I’ve seen him play a fair amount over the years between his two appearances at the World Junior Championships, three Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcases, and two full AHL seasons. I’ve seen a player who does many things well but isn’t exemplary in any area.
- Spacek is a good skater with solid lateral movement and a smooth stride, but he doesn’t get a lot of power off his edges, and there’s a real possibility he’ll struggle to defend with his feet in an increasingly fast NHL.
- He has decent size (6 feet, 190 lbs.) and engages physically, but he’s not enough of a force to make a difference in physical play.
- Spacek plays with poise with and without the puck and usually displays solid positioning. Still, he often takes bad angles when backtracking, which gives attackers options and makes it harder for him to recover.
- He’s responsible with the puck, but sometimes to a fault, as he almost always defers to the safe, simple play rather than testing the opposition with a stretch pass or by moving to exploit a seam.
- He moves well across the line as a power-play quarterback and distributes the puck with simple efficiency. Still, he’s not a significant threat to break down defenses or create his own chances, and there’s no way I can see him eventually quarterbacking an NHL power play.
All of this adds up to Spacek being a good professional hockey player without a defining quality that will make him stand out enough to become a full-time NHL player. I like his game a lot, and I can envision a scenario where he gets in a good situation and sticks as a sixth or seventh defenseman for a few years. Still, I think he will top out in the AHL and eventually head to Europe to continue his career.
Given the Wild’s move to acquire Jiricek and immediately slot him above Spacek on the right side, it’s starting to seem like the organization views Spacek similarly. And given his father’s recent comments, it seems apparent that Spacek isn’t satisfied with being an organizational depth piece that watches more highly touted prospects zoom past him on their way to NHL careers.
What should the Wild do?
It’s hard to imagine Spacek has immediate trade value beyond a late-round draft pick or a similar fringe prospect looking for a change of scenery. This isn’t like the Calen Addison situation, when the Wild gave up on the enigmatic defenseman and traded him to the San Jose Sharks for fringe prospect Adam Raska (who played a total of 13 NHL games before settling in as a minor leaguer) and a 5th-round pick.
Addison was a former second-round pick who played over 90 NHL games. However, after cycling through three organizations this season, he seems destined for a career in Europe. Spacek has yet to appear in the NHL.
Adam Beckman might be a better recent comparable. Beckman was a forward who was once viewed as a legit NHL prospect before his growth as a player stalled. At age 23, the Wild traded him to the New Jersey Devils for forward Graeme Clarke, who was the same age and had a similar player profile as a former prospect turned NHL longshot. Beckman and Clark players have been in the AHL since the deal, and the Devils saw enough of Beckman to trade him to the New York Islanders.
If the Wild move on from Spacek, they could try to swing a trade that brings back a late-round pick and hope that Judd Brackett uses it to unearth a gem. However, a return like that would probably require the Wild to part with more than Spacek alone. So, the more likely option is to trade for another prospect looking for a fresh start, hoping they can develop him into a valuable organizational piece. Either way, it’s unlikely they’d get a significant return, especially given that his displeasure with his current circumstances is now known to all.
Perhaps the Wild’s best bet would be to hang on to him and tell him that his best chance for finding a new home (or earning a call-up to Minnesota) is to show up to training camp ready to go, hit the ground running next season, and showcase his abilities for any potential suitors.
That seems like the best scenario for all involved. Iowa will need reliable defensemen next season, and Spacek should play a prominent role there. If he can provide solid production and demonstrate an ability to be a difference-maker in professional hockey, it would give the minor league squad a much-needed boost and Spacek the best chance to develop interest from other teams.
Either way, if there’s any truth to what his father said on Tuesday. It’s probably only a matter of time before David Spacek finds a new employer.
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