Slafkovsky, Nemec lead new Slovak hockey golden generation

MONTREAL (AP) — Juraj Slafkovsky embraced Simon Nemec and hugged Filip Mesar so tightly he picked his countryman up off the ground.

They had just made history as three players from Slovakia being selected in the first round of the NHL draft, and Slafkovsky and Nemec becoming the highest-drafted players in the nation’s history at Nos. 1 and 2.

“It’s just unbelievable moment for me, for my family and everyone who supports me and also for the whole Slovak country,” Slafkovsky said, beaming after being taken first by the Montreal Canadiens. “We needed something like this.”

Months after leading their team to its first Olympic medal, Slafkovsky and Nemec are ushering in a new golden generation of Slovak hockey. Decades after Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra and Miroslav Satan put Slovakia on the map, the renaissance is just beginning, with a wave of talent pouring into the NHL in the coming months and years from the tiny central European nation of 5 million people.

“Small, but we have really good players, and now more and more players will be better like we are,” Nemec said after going second to the New Jersey Devils. “Everybody is proud, and we’re proud, too.”

Fewer are as proud as Craig Ramsay, a longtime NHL assistant who took over coaching the Slovak national team in 2017 and determined along with Satan, now general manager, to play a fast, up-tempo style that catches up with the evolution of the sport.

When he first arrived in Slovakia, Ramsay was stopped at the entrance to a grocery by a man who told him, “Thank you for coming and for what you and Miro are trying to do, but it won’t work here.”

Except it did work. Success followed at world championships and then a bronze at the Beijing Olympics with a team featuring Slafkovsky and including Nemec and Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Samuel Knazko, all under 20 years old.

“We’ve started down the path of speed and compete and giving these young people a chance to…