RALEIGH, N.C. - Mike Keenan may have met his match here Saturday, selecting a player in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft who may be every bit as focused, confident and driven to win as the man who led the New York Rangers to the 1994 Stanley Cup.

The Florida Panther general manager used the seventh overall pick to select Rostislav Olesz, a 6-foot-2, 202-pound center who has been playing in the Czech Senior Extraleague since he was 15.

Think of Olesz like 10W-40 motor oil, the amazing multigrade that mimics light 10-weight oil in winter and thicker 40-weight in the heat of summer. Want to play rough? Olesz will pound you and take the puck away. Want to play a speedy, skill game? Olesz will dazzle you with his skating and pinpoint passing.

A lot of scouts insist he has no weaknesses, but he doesn't score a lot of goals lately, possibly the result of being a mid-teen playing against men. He's considered a great passer, but the scouting reports say he should shoot more.

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In competitions limited to his own age, Olesz stands out. While he had only one goal and 11 assists with Vitkovice last season, his campaign was broken up with stints on the national junior and senior teams.

Olesz had 21 goals and 20 assists in 36 games with Vitkovice's junior team in 2001-02. He had three goals and two assists at the 2004 World Junior Championship in Helsinki in January and two goals and three assists in six games at the 2003 Under-18 World Junior Championships in Yaroslavl, Russia.

The kid played on three different age-group national teams within the span of a year!

Talk about confident, Olesz was asked to compare his game to that of top pick Alexander Ovechkin.

"I don't think Ovechkin is a better hockey player," Olesz asserted. "For one thing, we are completely different types of players. He is getting a lot more publicity right now than I am, but that doesn't mean he will be more successful. Every one of us has a lot of things that we need to be working on to make ourselves better players. It doesn't matter whether someone is drafted first in the first round or drafted in the eighth round, we all have to work very hard to improve ourselves to have the skills needed to play in the NHL."

Told that he seemed very mature and confident in his abilities, Olesz shrugged if off.

"I don't think Ovechkin is a better hockey player. He is getting a lot more publicity right now than I am, but that doesn't mean he will be more successful." - Rostislav Olesz

"That's typical of most of the young players being considered as first-round picks," he said.

"I'm not nervous or very emotional," he said about draft day. "For me, it is my reward for working hard for many years and always trying to improve my skills. I think I have been very fortunate to be able to play hockey and to be considered a good hockey player. Hockey is very exciting and I love to play the game but at the same time it has its dark side. Family time, school, friendships all suffer because of the commitment to hockey and things have to be adjusted a bit."

Olesz's early physical maturity allowed him to dominate his age group, but it also forced him to play against men at a young age.

"Because I was always bigger than other kids my age, I have always played against older players and my size and strength allowed me to play on equal terms with older players," he said. "I also found that many of those older players were not as physically prepared as I am so it allowed me to outplay them. I have never played in a league where I was overmatched physically.

"I think I am a very good skater and that is the foundation, the basis, for my game. I think I am something of a clever player but mostly I am a hard worker. I think my passing is another part of my game that is pretty good. The thing that I most need to get better at is in driving to the net. I have to work harder at that and I am. I would like to be as good at that as Vaclav Varada."

The Panthers are stocked with young talent on the verge of breaking through to the NHL. One general manager said Saturday that he believes the Panthers "will be the next Tampa Bay Lightning," this year's Stanley Cup winners and the Panthers' Southeast Division rival. Olesz's personality would seem to dictate that he will be a part of team leadership within a short time.

"When I play with older players, I've always tried to learn from them, both hockey skills and the way to be part of a team," Olesz said. "From them, I learned to work hard and be a team player so when I play with players my own age I try to bring to that team some of the things I've learned from the older players. I have watched the captains of my older teams so I could learn how to be a better leader. I would love someday to be a captain of an NHL team. That is one of my goals."

Unlike some players who tell you their most important goal was the one that broke a league record, the only important goals to Olesz are the ones that help win games.

The Panthers believe Olesz possesses all the intangibles to be successful.

"In my last game last season, I was playing for the national team. I scored and we won the game so I think that might be the biggest goal of my career, so far," he said.

C'mon, is this kid throwing red meat to the Panthers' faithful, or what?

"Olesz is an offensive-skilled player who played in the elite league in the Czech Republic, and we are very happy with this selection," Keenan said.

"I think the biggest adjustment for me will be playing on the smaller ice surfaces and learning to speak English," Olesz said through a translator. The boy may have a few tricks up his sleeve, though. When the translator struggled with a bit of hockey jargon, Olesz nailed it. "Driving to the net," he blurted in perfectly understandable English.

Old-timers remembered Jaromir Jagr doing the same thing early in his career and following it with his sly grin. Little wonder, then, that Jagr is his idol, along with Martin Havlat.

"In the off-season, I have been playing with Jagr and Martin Straka," he said. "It was very interesting and I learned a lot from them. But I learned from playing with them that I have a long journey in front of me to become as good a player as Jagr. I think my game is similar to Martin Havlat. I would like to be as good a player as Havlat. (Vaclav) Varada is another player that I respect."