DU Receives Commitment From Czech Recruit

According to Chris Hiesenberg's website DU has received a verbal commitment from Stepan Novotny who hails from Prague, Czech Republic. According to Hiesenberg, Notovny will be attending DU as a 2008 recruit.

Novotny is a 6'1 190 lbs. forward who played for H.C. Sparta Pahra in Europe. Currently, he is attending Shattuck St. Mary's boarding school in Faribault, MN. So far this season he has 8 goals and 21 assists in 22 games.

Novotny is described as a "big physical forward who has a scoring touch and great puck handling skills." (The kind of player that might be drafted in the first three rounds in the 2009 NHL Draft).

This past summer Novotny played for the Czech Republic Under-18 team and faced two DU recruits, Nate Dewhurst and Matt Donovan, who were playing for Team USA in the 2007 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka Tournament.

Western College Hockey Blog had this to say about Notovny:

Stepan Novotny also seems to be developing quite well. His skating looked much better than it did at this time last year. His combination of size and skill kind of reminds me of Andreas Nodl (SCSU). He just needs to work on getting better at finishing.

Denver head coach George Gwozdecky was on-hand to watch Novotny play last Saturday at the Nike/Bauer National Invitational Tournament in New Hope, Minnesota, and apparently the coach liked what he saw.

Novotny is starting to drew a lot of attention at the Nike/Bauer NIT. He looked way bigger than 6'1". I don't think he'll necessarily be a superstar at the college level, but he should be a pretty good player.

DU's Current Recruiting Classes

2008
F Nate Dewhurst (Des Moines, USHL)
F Joe Colborne (Camrose, AJHL)
D John Lee (Waterloo, USHL) (SIGNED)
F Stepan Novotny (Shattuck-St. Marys, MnHS)

2009
D William Wrenn (U.S. Under-17)
D Matt Donovan (Cedar Rapids, USHL)
D Paul Phillips (Cedar Rapids, USHL)
G Adam Murray (U.S. under-17)
F Drew Shore (U.S. Under-17)