Chiefs Choose Czech Center Eighth In Import Player Draft Gomez, Once On Spokane List, Center Of Tri-City Controversy
Petr Sykora, a third-round choice of the Detroit Red Wings in Saturday’s National Hockey League entry draft, is the newest member of the Spokane Chiefs.
The Western Hockey League club nabbed the center from Pardubice, Czech Republic, in Thursday’s import player draft.
The Chiefs - who swapped first-round choices with the Saskatoon Blades at last April’s bantam draft - made Sykora, 19, the eighth pick of the draft.
Saskatoon took Spokane’s 26th selection of the opening round.
Sykora, 6-2, 180, is the brother of Michal Sykora, who played two seasons in the WHL before being drafted by the San Jose Sharks and traded to the Chicago Black Hawks.
The scouting report on Petr Sykora is that he has “home-run potential,” Chiefs general manager Tim Speltz said. “They feel he is a good skater who goes to the net. We think he’s going to score and create space.”
Speltz said the Chiefs were looking for an experienced player with the potential to crack the club’s top two lines.
The Chiefs can carry only two non-North American players. With right winger Marian Cisar returning, Russian right winger Yegor Mikhailov was dropped Wednesday.
Mikhailov, seriously injured in the Chiefs’ January bus crash, could be claimed in the later rounds of the import player draft, Speltz said.
Elsewhere in the WHL, the Tri-City Herald has reported that the Tri-City Americans’ deal with highly regarded center Scott Gomez is caught up in reports Gomez received a $200,000 incentive package.
The alleged agreement, initially reported last week in the bi-weekly Peace Arch (British Columbia) News, would exceed the league’s education and benefits package. The standard is one year of college tuition and books for each year a player is in the league.
Penalties for exceeding the standard inducement could include a fine and loss of first-round picks in the bantam draft.
Gomez was on the protected list of the Chiefs, who dropped his name in late January after they were unable to recruit him.
Gomez signed a national letter of intent to attend Colorado College but the coach at Colorado, Don Lucia, told a Colorado Springs radio station that Gomez decided in favor of the WHL because of a deal that includes cash, insurance and benefits, the Herald reported.
The Americans deny any improprieties.
WHL president Dev Dley said Thursday that “there is no on-going investigation because, as of now, there’s nothing to investigate.”
Gomez, 17, had a sensational last season with the Tier II South Surrey, B.C. Eagles. The Americans recently hired South Surrey coach Rick Lanz as an assistant. That could be construed as an effort to smooth the 5-11, 176-pound Gomez’ transition to the Americans.
Initial reports were that Tri-City owner Ron Toigo initiated legal action against the Peace Arch News. Efforts to reach Toigo Thursday were not successful.
Speltz said at the recent WHL owners meeting that he asked Toigo and Ams’ general manager Bob Brown about rumors he’d heard regarding the Gomez deal.
“They denied everything,” Speltz said. “We didn’t ask for an investigation (by the league). We (the Chiefs) have no reason to pursue it.
“In hindsight, I never should have dropped him (Gomez).”
, DataTimes