Coming over from Europe, Hrabal is one of the top-ranked goaltending prospects from the North American Junior system. He grew up playing in Czechia where he emerged as a legitimate prospect while playing against his peers. If there were a word that could best describe his play, it would be “smooth.”
Birthplace: Prague, Czechia
Date of birth: January 20, 2005
Catches: Left
Position: Goaltender
Height: 6’6”
Weight: 209 lbs.
Team: Omaha Lancers (USHL)
The first thing you’ll notice with Hrabal is his size. At 6’6″ and 209 pounds, he takes up a lot of the net with his size. He is a smooth-skating, smooth-moving goalie, going post to post with an effortless slide.
He started the year very strong, and ended up playing 31 games with the Lancers, posting a .908 save percentage and a 2.86 goals-against average with three shutouts. Now some of you would say these stats don’t scream top goaltending prospect. There is a caveat, as the Lancers were the third-worst of 16 teams in the USHL.
What’s more, he had to deal with a language barrier, moving to a new country. Generally speaking, the Lancers were a better team with Hrabal in net. As he continues to get acclimated to the North American game, we should see a more polished prospect emerging through it all.
Hrabal does have quite a few strengths in his impressive toolbox. One of his best traits is his agility, especially for a goaltender who is 6’6”. His calm attitude and poise in net is impressive for an 18-year-old. Rarely will you find him flopping around in front of his net. He uses smooth yet crisp movement to glide around his crease.
His rebound control is quite good. He routinely pushes pucks to low-danger areas and uses his size well to do so. His size could become an even bigger factor if he learns to play a little more aggressively, as he tends to play deep in his net. With a good team in front of him, he should have more leeway to play that style and out of his crease.
His puck-tracking skills are strong. He towers over other players to keep track of plays developing in front of him. He covers a lot of net when in butterfly, and does a good job of widening himself and taking up space down low.
Overall, he’s very athletic and nimble. He moves efficiently within his crease, implementing proper movement techniques and transitioning effortlessly between them. He is controlled and composed, rarely being caught scrambling.
As with any young prospect his age, there are a few holes in his game. Luckily for him, most of these can be fixed with ample practice and time.
One of these issues is how he handles the few high-danger rebounds he gets every game. They usually come as a result of struggling to correctly glove pucks. Instead of catching and containing the puck, it ends up bouncing off his trapper.
For as good as his puck-tracking is, that ability can get overwhelmed when there is a lot of traffic in front of him. His reaction sometimes slows while processing what is happening.
He does offer excellent post security, quick repositioning, a great deal of athleticism, and the ability to maintain line of sight when the opponents attack his net. Stylistically, when he is on his game, he can resemble Jacob Markstrom.
Preliminary Rankings
Dobber Prospects: #46
Elite Prospects: #38
FCHockey: #75
Hockey Prospect: #24
Hadi Kalakeche: #41
McKeen’s: #44
Bob McKenzie (TSN): #32
NHL Central Scouting: #2 (North American goaltenders)
Corey Pronman (The Athletic): #38
Scott Wheeler (The Athletic): #41
Hrabal projects to be a starting NHL goaltender. There are a few areas in his game that will need refinement in order to get him to that level. It would be great to see him shift more quickly to shooting threats who who have gotten to back-door areas. When in the butterfly, he sometimes shows signs of struggling to shift over in time and take on shots squared up to the shooter.
With that said, overall he uses his speed and athleticism nicely to shift his positioning while sprawling out to shut down high-danger shots. He has excellent post security and he takes away a lot of space in net.
His place in rankings suggests that he’ll go sometime in the second round of this year’s draft. He does have some areas to work on, but offers more than others in the 2023 goaltending class.
Matt Drake
