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Perspective, however, shifted as Ruzicka surged through his teenaged years. He showed well enough that he was taken 14th overall in the 2016 KHL draft by his hometown club, Slovan Bratislava. Soon, a three-year deal was put on the table.

Heady stuff for a 17-year-old.

“But three days before I was going to sign … all of a sudden my agent came up to me and told me there’s a good chance that I would be drafted (into the NHL) if I went to the OHL,” recalled Ruzicka. “My agent said that it’s a good idea. So I was kind of thinking about it for three days. Then I talked with my parents (to see) if they’re fine with me going there and if they wanted me to go there. I decided to go. I was like, ‘OK, let’s try it out,’ and I did it.

“I’m pretty glad I made this decision. It was the right one for me. Everyone has different paths — I chose this one.”

“Adam deserves to be here,” said general manager Brad Treliving. “This is another step for him as we continue to develop a player here. He’s going to go through a training-camp process and it’s going to be good for him.

“It’ll pay dividends now and in the future.”

“I’m ready,” he said the other day from his parents’ home in Slovakia. “I’m ready for everything.”

“Yeah, it’s a pretty big step — the physicality, the smartness, the speed of the players is really different than juniors,” said Ruzicka. “I was coming off a good camp, the main camp in Calgary, (where I played) some good exhibition games, so I was pretty confident at that point.”


“It doesn’t matter if you’re from junior or if you played pro in Czech or Slovakia or somewhere else,” he said, “you can do it if you’ve got the right mindset.”

And a bunch of stuff on his journey to make the NHL by Cruikshank.

https://theathletic.com/1898294/2020...rce=dailyemail