FEATURE: Choosing Hockey Changed Zacha's Life

When Pavel Zacha was 11 years-old, he made a decision.

A decision that would ultimately lead him to New Jersey a decade later.

"I had to decide if I'm going to play hockey in one city, or play tennis in the other city four hours apart," Zacha said, answering questions from the Devils Black and Red members, "and I made a decision when I was 11 to go play hockey, so we moved with my dad and if I didn't make that decision, I'd probably be playing tennis right now."

Admittedly, Zacha's tennis skills are no longer as good as they used to be, he doesn't get to play at the same frequency as he once did. When he was younger, he says he was a better tennis player than hockey player, until he committed full-time to the team sport.

"I was probably a little bit better in tennis than in hockey," he continued, "but I never really liked it as much as hockey, I always loved team sports."

That decision to commit to hockey eventually lead Zacha halfway across the world.

He was drafted into the OHL of the Canadian Hockey League and moved to play for the Sarnia Sting in Sarnia, Ontario. Playing for Sarnia, the NHL no longer seems as far away as it might when you're playing in Czech Republic. Suddenly, there were scouts at games on a regular basis and being noticed, playing your best in front of them is the first step of being on NHL radars.

"I was always playing in Czech," Pavel explained, "so the NHL was really far, far away from where I want it to be. And then when I when I went to play in the Junior Hockey League, I was like, okay, there is scouts seeing me, there might be a chance for me to really get drafted and have a chance to play [in the NHL]. So, I think that was the first time I was like, okay, I'm in Canada I'm here for one reason only, to make the NHL now and that was my main thought process."

His new home in Sarnia took him thousands of miles away from his home in Brno, Czech Republic, eventually drafted by the Devils in 2015. Now he makes his home in Jersey City, a far cry from Brno, but a place he now feels comfortable.

"It's very different from where I'm from in Czech Republic, so it's kind of a shock for me to go from you know, 10,000 people city, to new basically in New Jersey and how busy it is there, but I really feel like after four years it's feels like home now and I'm enjoying every day I'm there."

Zacha just completed the best statistical year of his career, after making his NHL debut in 2016 in the Devils final game of the year. He scored eight goals and assisted on a career-high 24 for 32 points. He found a particular stride playing alongside good friend Jesper Bratt and Nikita Gusev, one of the most consistent lines over the latter half of the 2019-20 season. The line combination, coupled with the relationship Pavel had with interim head coach Alain Nasreddine, proved to be a perfect concoction.

"He gave me a chance," Zacha said of Nasreddine, "[he] really told me what I should do on the ice. And when he wasn't happy, he told me right away, it was one of the things that I really appreciated. One of the most fun [times] I had playing, there was some chemistry there, we always know where we are on the ice. You know Goose is one of the best players on the ice with the puck, when you give [the puck] to him, he's one of the smartest players out there. Bratter, it's the same thing. They're just fun guys to play with and I enjoyed [it] so much and I think you could tell we're having fun, we're scoring goals and it was just great time that we had."

Memories from the start:

Any player's NHL debut is a memorable moment, but for Pavel Zacha it held extra weight and offered him an experience of a lifetime. No, it wasn't a two-assist night in his first NHL game where he played 16:51, but it was about who was sitting on the bench with the rookie: Patrik Elias. One of the best players to ever come out of the Czech Republic and Devils franchise. There are few things that currently top that moment for Pavel.

"I think probably my favorite memory, I would say is," Pavel said, taking a deep pause, "I'm never going forget it. Patrik Elias scored the goal at the end of the game at home against Toronto in the third period and the crowd was just going crazy for a minute and a half. He just looked at me at the faceoff and then smile a little bit.

"I was like 'this is crazy how people can show love and the Devils fan-base, they're amazing fans. That gave me goosebumps, just going to the faceoff and being there. That was probably my favorite memory, other than making playoffs, just that moment, it was my first game, Patty scored his last goal, we're just standing on the face-off and fans were really screaming for at least a minute. It was amazing."