Vomacka Takes Next Step in Journey by Signing First Pro Deal with Preds

Prior to the start of the 2020-21 collegiate season, junior netminder Tomas Vomacka told his goalie coach at the University of Connecticut he wanted to sign with the Predators in the springtime.
After appearing in all 23 games for UConn and making 622 saves - the fourth highest total of any NCAA goaltender - the Preds were happy to bring that goal to fruition.
Four years after they called his name in the fifth round of the 2017 NHL Draft, Nashville inked the now 22-year-old Czech Republic native to a two-year, entry-level contract. The deal is well earned for Vomacka after blossoming into a reliable puck stopper in a country that was foreign to him when he first arrived in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 2016 to play junior hockey.
Now fluent in English, and equipped with an infectiously positive personality, Vomacka is ready to take the next step with the game he loves.

"It's definitely unbelievable," Vomacka said from back home in the Czech Republic of signing his contract. "I talked about it after the Draft and said how the moment was unbelievable, and I'm pretty sure this was the exact same feeling I had when I first got drafted by the Preds. It's something that I'll never forget."
Vomacka closed out his junior season with UConn by being named to the watch list for the Mike Richter Award - given annually to the top goaltender in NCAA Division I men's hockey - and by earning a spot on the Hockey East All-Star Third Team. The 6-foot-3, 190-pound netminder appeared in 71 games across three seasons for UConn, posting a 32-33-5 record, 2.88 goals-against average, .906 save percentage and two shutouts.
Just as the Predators have done in the NHL this season, Vomacka and his teammates dealt with a number of changes in their recent campaign due to the pandemic, but he's proud of the way the group stuck together through the adversity. The past year provided further opportunities for him to improve personally on the ice as well, and while there's still room for growth, Vomacka knows he's come a long way.
"I was kind of playing 'little-kid hockey' in juniors, but I've always been like that, playing with emotion and stuff like that, but I think college just calmed me down," Vomacka said. "I tried to stay more in my crease and worked on positioning. I definitely made huge steps, but nothing's perfect, so there's always everything that I can still be working on."

Prior to his stay in the NCAA, Vomacka played two seasons of junior hockey in the U.S. before enrolling at UConn where he won 24 games for the USHL's Lincoln Stars in 2017-18 and was named the NAHL's South Division Goaltender of the Year in 2016-17 as a member of the Corpus Christi Ice Rays.
That arrival to North America came after some impressive stints as a teenager for local Czech teams, but prior to turning 16 and potentially turning pro back home, Vomacka had a decision to make. He says his mother and father have always valued education, and if he would have signed a professional deal, finishing his schooling would have gone to the wayside.
"That was one thing that I never wanted to do is skip steps, and I think starting in the NAHL, and then the USHL and three years at college made me ready [to reach this point]," Vomacka said. "It probably got me more ready than if I was 16 trying to play somewhere in the pros in Czech… If someone asked me why it was good [to come to North America], I mean, I speak English, and I met so many new people. Plus, I got to go to school and finish a degree, and I can play good hockey. There's really only positives."
There were adjustments Vomacka had to make as he became accustomed to life on a new continent, but once he got to UConn, he had a fellow countryman by his side.
In the summer of 2018, one year after Vomacka was drafted, his friend - and soon-to-be UConn teammate - Jachym Kondelik was eligible to be selected by an NHL club. Vomacka was on a flight during the second day of the 2018 Draft, but he was following along from the air and couldn't believe what he saw.
"I thought that would be so much fun if he got drafted to the same team, so I bought Wi-Fi on the plane, and I'm going through the results of the Draft and I see his name and it says, 'Nashville,'" Vomacka said of Kondelik. "I'm like, 'Wait, this has got to be a mistake or something. Like, there's no chance.' Then I call him, and I'm like, 'Are you kidding me, man?! Like, what's going on?' He's like, 'I don't know, it's crazy.'
"I could talk about him all night long because I lived with him for three years and he kind of became my brother. I have nothing else to say about him, only positives, and he's always been a great roommate and a great guy. I think that's what makes him an even better player is he's such a nice person and literally just like my brother… It's definitely fun to have someone that close and drafted to the same team. You kind of shared a college experience, and hopefully soon we'll share the pro experience."
Kondelik has been named a captain with the Huskies ahead of his senior season, and Vomacka will be following his friend from afar, for now, wherever that may be in the Nashville organization. Vomacka hopes for some sort of development camp this summer with the Predators after it was canceled last year due to the pandemic, but regardless, he'll be training in the months ahead and preparing himself for what's next.
He had visions of something like this when he left his homeland to follow his dreams, but even after strapping on the pads and improving game by game, signing his name on a dotted line was still rather surreal.
As a result, his motivation has never been higher either, and no matter where the next two years take him, Vomacka isn't going to get ahead of himself. Instead, he plans on staying in the moment, just focused on stopping the next puck that comes his way.
"I'm forever going to be grateful for signing this contract, but it's just another step on the way," Vomacka said. "This is not the end goal. This is just another achievement and step along the way."