Hlozek Heads for Free Agency

[Bojovnik 487]

BRNO (November 17, 2021, CZHockey.cz)

 

Jan Hlozek will be heading for free agency.

 

The star blueliner made the announcement on social media on Wednesday after spending three underwhelming seasons with the Riga Reign.

 

Hlozek will enter the market on the back of a point-per-game season in which the diminutive defenceman came into his own offensively. The 24-year-old, born and raised in Topolna, Czech Republic, made it publicly clear that he was becoming frustrated with the Reign's lack of team success, having missed the playoffs in both S78 and S80.

 

The Reign took what some believed to be a reach when they selected Hlozek eighth overall in the S77 VHL Entry Draft. Hlozek spent his first post draft year back in the VHLM as a member of the title-winning Miami Marauders organization. This win gave him some name recognition, but many in the VHL still see the Czech defenceman, who is set to represent Team Mercanaries at the upcoming World Cup, as somewhat of an engima.

 

Hlozek spoke to CZHockey late on Wednesday evening, after the Topolna native made his announcement that he would not be resigning in Riga, and he said that he was grateful to the Reign for taking a chance on him four seasons ago.

 

"It's been a super tough decision. I'm amazing thankful to the management for drafting me and giving me the space and time to develop. I really enjoyed my time in Latvia, but as I'm entering my prime, I want to be on a team that I believe can contend for the title, and I'm not sure Riga is in that position," Hlozek stated.

 

The Reign's roster is full of star talent, including Cabe McJake and Linus Zetterstrom, but despite having one of the most fancied rosters on paper, the Reign missed the playoffs entirely last season with a sixth placed finish in the European Conference.

 

The Latvian side has struggled for goaltending following the shock retirement of goalie Calvin Harvey, and Hlozek said that the team's struggles this season may have been the result of inaction taken during the off-season.

 

"I guess one of the things that frustrated me the most was that I thought we were close to building something special in my time here. We just needed to make one or two good moves to strengthen our roster in areas that we needed to, but that didn't really happen and I didn't get a sense that it would happen any time soon. It was disappointing as the guys put their all in throughout all my time here, but we just couldn’t seem to put it together when we needed to most," Hlozek stated.

 

So where does Hlozek see himself ending up? The Czech blueliner said that he was still yet to make any decision on where his future lay.

 

"This is something that my agent is handling mostly at the moment. I've spent a lot of time making this decision, so I haven't really thought about where I will go. The only thing I know for sure is that winning is at the top of my agenda," he said.

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Bojovnik

[MetalToday 266]

I am interested to see where you will end up. I would've liked a little more emphasis on the star players that just couldn't do it for Reign, like stats or tpe, this would give a better argument to me who the top stars on the team are. I would love to have a follow-up to give me an update what team will win.   8/10

Edited November 18, 2021 by MetalToday