Name: Tomas Kralovic<\/p>\n
Drafted: Third Round, 90th overall<\/p>\n
Bio: 20-years-old, right shot, Bratislava, Slovakia, 6\u20193\u2033, 203 lbs.<\/p>\n
Position: Defense<\/p>\n
2025-26 Team: HC Slovan Bratislava, Slovakia<\/p>\n
Not every player takes a straight line to the NHL. Nor are they on the same timeline. Tomas Kralovic is not a 17- or 18-year-old kid going through the process for the first time. He\u2019s been through a draft or two or three before. Finally, he gets to hear his name called by a NHL team. In true Tampa fashion, he was out on a jet ski when he was drafted. The kid is going to be okay.<\/p>\n
Following the draft, Lightning Director of Amateur Scouting John Russo indicated that Kralovic had been on the organization\u2019s radar for previous drafts, but the overarching conviction was that he \u201cwasn\u2019t ready\u201d. A breakout season as a 20-year-old in Slovakia\u2019s top professional league in which the right-shot defenseman posted 31 points (6 goals, 25 assists) in 52 games. It was an increase of 24 points over his previous season with HC Slovan Bratislava. <\/p>\n
As an older player, the Lightning have a pretty good idea of what he is as a player. So far, the consensus is that he is a big, mobile defender with a knack for being in the right spot and making the right decision in the offensive zone. He\u2019s not too bad in his own zone, using his size and reach to knock aside passes and getting in the way of shots. Kralovic doesn\u2019t use his size to the fullest in terms of physical play along the boards or in front of the net.<\/p>\n
Since he is a big Slovakian right-shot defender there are some immediate comparisons to Erik Cernak. Honestly, it\u2019s a little unfair at this point. Kralovic doesn\u2019t have that underlying edge to the physical part of the game that Cernak displays. On the flip side, if Cernak could skate like Kralovic, he would probably be making $10 million a season.<\/p>\n
It probably won\u2019t be long until Kralovic jumps to North America and his journey to the NHL could be quick. There isn\u2019t much in his way at Syracuse, and he should get a chance to play in all three aspects of the game. It will be worth watching to see how his skating transitions to the AHL, considering it\u2019s one of the strong points of his game right now. He likes to jump up on the play and facilitate off of the rush. <\/p>\n
Working on the finer parts of the game and recognizing plays in his own zone quicker will definitely boost his stock in the organization. Much like the Kulebiakin pick, this was considered a bit of a reach for the Bolts, but the potential upside is worth the risk. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Name: Tomas Kralovic Drafted: Third Round, 90th overall Bio: 20-years-old, right shot, Bratislava, Slovakia, 6\u20193\u2033, 203 lbs. Position:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-322420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}