Libor Hajek Excited to Make NHL Debut With Rangers

Libor Hajek was getting in a postgame workout when he was summoned into the office of Hartford head coach Keith McCambridge. The Wolf Pack has just wrapped up a home game with the Hershey Bears at XL Center, and the coaching staff wanted a word. McCambridge was letting Hajek know that the next game he would play would be for the New York Rangers.
There was one friend in particular with whom Hajek wanted to share the exciting news: He called up Filip Chytil.
"I called him right away after I found out - again," Hajek said after his first practice with the Rangers. "It was the same at the trade last year.
"He told me everything - what time to be here, what to do. And now I will drive him back home. It's nice to speak Czech again."
The trade last year was the one with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 26 that involved five players and two draft picks changing hands, and brought Hajek, 20 years old at the time, along with Vlad Namestnikov and Brett Howden to the Rangers. Tampa Bay sent its first-round pick in 2018 (that became Nils Lundkvist) and a 2019 conditional second-rounder the Rangers' way as well.

Namestnikov, who recently turned 26, is the veteran of that group - he played his 300th NHL game earlier this season. Howden, 20, played his first NHL game for the Rangers on Opening Night this season.
On Friday night, nearly a year to the day after the trade, the 21-year-old Hajek will be the next to make his NHL debut, pulling on the Blueshirt to face the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden.
"I'm sure he's excited about the opportunity to be here," David Quinn said on Thursday. "He's earned it."
Hajek and Chytil first came to know one another as teammates on the Czech team at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Buffalo, where Hajek tied for the tournament scoring lead among defensemen as he and Chytil helped the Czechs reach the tournament semifinal.
Further downstate at the Garden on Friday, Hajek, a lefty shot, will skate against the Habs on a pair with Neal Pionk, the 23-year-old who with Wednesday's game against Tampa Bay just reached one full season - 82 games - of NHL experience under his belt, but still will be the grizzled veteran of this defense duo.
"I don't know if I would call myself a veteran," Pionk chuckled on Thursday. "But I do remember that time last year when I got called up. So I'll do everything I can to help."
To that end, Pionk and Hajek lingered together on the practice rink on Thursday, talking at the bench after many of their teammates had come off the ice.
"He was helping me through the practice, through the drills, talked to me about tomorrow's game, how it will be," Hajek said of Pionk. "It will be faster, smarter. I'm excited for it."
Pionk was in an unusual situation for his own NHL debut, which came against Calgary last Feb. 9: His partner that game was John Gilmour, who also happened to be making his NHL debut. Marc Staal had been injured at the time, but Pionk remembers what a lift it was for the new defensemen when the veteran blueliner returned. "He's been there, done that," Pionk said of Staal. "He helped me a lot and I'll try to do a lot of the same things with (Hajek)."
The 6-foot-2, 204-pound Hajek joins the Rangers having played in all 58 games for the Wolf Pack this season. It is his first full AHL season following three years of junior hockey in Canada, for WHL Saskatoon and Regina, whom he helped guide to the Memorial Cup final in 2018. Tampa Bay scooped him up following his rookie junior season, using its second-round pick (No. 37) of the 2016 NHL Draft.
Hajek said his Western League experience gave him a thorough lesson in playing the North American rink size and style, and that this season has been more about adjusting to the professional game.
"Playing with men - it's not with kids anymore," said Hajek, who celebrated his 21st birthday on Feb. 4. "They're smarter, faster, more better skill. Everything is tougher.
"But I'm really happy that I spent the time and the season in Hartford. I think I grew up there a lot."
"He's a guy that's continued to get better down in Hartford - they've done a great job with him, he's earned this opportunity," Quinn said. "He's a guy that can skate, I really liked him in training camp, I thought he made good decisions with the puck, makes a good outlet pass, does a good job taking away time and space. That's why he's here.
"For a defenseman, numbers can sometimes be deceiving, especially in the American Hockey League when you're a defenseman," Quinn, a former defenseman himself, said of Hajek, who has five assists and 36 penalty minutes in the AHL this season. "There's a lot that goes into evaluation of a player, and it's the progress - you're looking at the full season of statistics, and we're looking at the progress, and where he is over the last month. We feel his play has warranted this opportunity."
Hajek said he feels that the defensive part of his game has taken the most strides over his first pro season in Hartford, and that he still sees a high ceiling on the offensive side of the puck. But he also has the self-awareness to know that he can hit trouble if he is trying too hard to impress: "I need to stay in my game," Hajek said, and Quinn believes that is the astute approach.
"To me, his bread and butter is going to be his ability to defend and make an outlet pass and join the rush," the coach said. "To me, those are the things he has to focus on, especially right now. And the less responsibility he feels, the more productive he's going to be. We're just looking for him to defend, take away time and space, have good gaps, make a good outlet pass and be physical. If he's focusing on that, his play will benefit from it."
Kevin Shattenkirk, a righty blueliner, played with Hajek on his left for extended periods during Training Camp in September and came away impressed. His advice for Hajek's debut? "I would just say to have fun with it," said the nine-year vet. "The first few shifts are going to be a blur, and then you start to settle in and realize you're playing a hockey game again. I think for him, just take a second and enjoy it and look around when you're on the bench and realize where you are. Smile, and go out there and play your best hockey."
Said Pionk: "It's just hockey. There is a lot of glamor to it, but at the end of the day we're just going out and playing hockey like we always have."