Did you have a childhood dream?
For every young hockey player, it’s two things: hoisting the Stanley Cup and representing their country at the Olympics. Utah Mammoth goaltender Karel Vejmelka will do the latter this month in Milan.
But unlike many of his Olympic peers, Vejmelka was not always hailed as the future of his country’s national program.
“It’s the biggest tournament in the world, so it’s the hardest tournament. They’re the best players — the best of the best — and they play against each other."
— Utah Mammoth goalie Karel Vejmelka on his opportunity to represent Czechia in the 2026 Winter Games
He was passed up in his first draft-eligible year. The Nashville Predators selected him with a late pick the following year, but they opted not to sign him. He went back to Czechia, where he’d play five more seasons in the much lower Extraliga league before getting his first NHL chance.
The Arizona Coyotes eventually signed him in 2021. He ended up stealing the job as their starting goalie, and he hasn’t looked back. He’s approaching his 100th NHL win over those five seasons, and he recently set himself up for life with a five-year contract extension worth $23.75 million.
The NHL only has 26 active Czech players, so each guy’s odds of making the 25-man team seemed pretty good — but there’s one caveat: eight of them are goalies. Nothing was guaranteed for any of them.
Regardless, Vejmelka was always confident he’d make it.
“I believed I can be part of it, so yeah, I just trusted myself and I kind of expected it,” he told the Deseret News.
He got the call on his way to practice one morning, but he waited until he could get his whole family on the same call before telling anyone.
“They were excited, for sure,” he said.
Vejmelka joins Anaheim’s Lukáš Dostál and Philadelphia’s Dan Vladař, beating out the likes of Petr Mrázek, Jakub Dobeš and his Mammoth teammate, Vítek Vaněček.
At the time of this writing, Vejmelka is tied for the lead the NHL in wins. He recently concluded an eight-game winning streak and his goals-against average is among the best of his career. But that doesn’t mean he’ll automatically be Czechia’s go-to guy — Dostál has also been lights-out and Vladař is also having a career year.
Whatever role Vejmelka ends up with, he’ll be happy.
“I will take, like, whatever position they give me,” he said. “I’m ready (to help) the team as much as I can in any possible way. So, I’m ready for whatever.”
It didn’t take long for the fans in Utah to take a liking to Vejmelka — “Veggie,” as you’ll hear the fans at the Delta Center chant whenever he makes a big save.
“It’s a special feeling,” Vejmelka said at the end of last season when asked what it’s like to hear 16,000 people chant his name night after night. “I really enjoyed every moment on the ice, especially during those chants.”
He and Dostál worked together at the 2024 World Championship, where they brought Czechia its first gold medal since 2010. Czechia rolled with Dostál that year, with Mrázek filling in for a couple of games, meaning Vejmelka didn’t get to see the ice at all. While Vejmelka is prepared for the possibility of that happening again, it’s unlikely that it actually does.
He’s also aware of how much steeper the competition will be at the Olympics, compared to the World Championship. The World Championship happens during the Stanley Cup playoffs, so many elite players aren’t available to attend — and many who are available choose not to go, opting to rest after a long season.
Again, the Olympics are every kid’s dream. Unlike the World Championship, national teams don’t have to do any convincing to get their stars to go.
“It’s the biggest tournament in the world, so it’s the hardest tournament,” Vejmelka said. “They’re the best players — the best of the best — and they play against each other.”
Inspired by history
The last time Czechia won gold at the Olympics, Vejmelka was a few months shy of his second birthday. While he doesn’t remember it the way others do, its effects on Czech hockey can’t be understated.
Goaltender Dominik Hašek was the story of those Games. Not only did he blank Canada in a shootout in the 1998 Games semifinal, he also shut Russia out in the gold medal game — which, given Czechia’s then-recent separation from the Soviet Union, carried just as much significance off the ice as it did on it.
Every young Czech goalie wanted to be like Hašek, and Vejmelka was no exception.
“When I was 5, 6 years old, when I started to play goalie, Hašek was one of my favorite goalies,” he said. “Obviously he was one of the best in the NHL already, so it was really fun to watch him. It was a different kind of hockey, obviously, but it was fun to watch him. It was insane what he did.”
Now, Vejmelka will get the chance to stand in Hašek’s crease, with the eyes of the whole country — including “The Dominator” himself, on him.
Czechia’s first opponent this year is Canada, which has won gold at three of the five Olympic tournaments that NHL players have been permitted to attend. The puck drops at 8:40 a.m. MST on Feb. 12.
“It’s going to be (a) big, big challenge for us, for sure,” Vejmelka said.
