Eduard Šalé (born 10 March 2005) is a Czech professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

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for the

Barrie Colts The Barrie Colts are a junior ice hockey team in Ontario Hockey League, based in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Pre-OHL history There were two previous Barrie Colts teams which played Junior A & B hockey in the Ontario Hockey Association, one from 1 ...

of the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overag ...

(OHL) as a prospect to the

Seattle Kraken The Seattle Kraken are a professional ice hockey team based in Seattle. The Kraken compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and began play during the league's 2021–22 season. ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL). He was drafted 20th overall by the Kraken in the

2023 NHL Entry Draft The 2023 NHL Entry Draft will be the 61st NHL Entry Draft. The draft is expected to be held on June 28–29, 2023, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Eligibility Ice hockey players born between January 1, 2003, and September 15, 200 ...

Playing career

Šalé played as a youth within hometown club,

HC Kometa Brno HC Kometa Brno ("Comet" in English) is a professional ice hockey team based in Brno, Czech Republic. They play in the Czech Extraliga. Kometa is the most successful ice hockey club in the Czech Republic with 13 Czechoslovak (and Czech) league ch ...

, first appearing as a 13 year-old at the under-16 level. During the 2020–21 season, Šalé having appeared with the under-20 team, he briefly left Brno and made seven appearances at the Finnish under-18 SM-sarja competition with

Ilves Ilves (; Finnish for " Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the city ...

. Returning to Brno, Šalé made his senior professional debut in the

Czech Extraliga The Czech Extraliga ( cs, Extraliga ledního hokeje, ELH) is the highest-level ice hockey league in the Czech Republic. It was created by the 1993 split of the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League following the breakup of Czechoslovakia. The leag ...

during the 2021–22 season, finishing with two goals and three assists in 10 regular season games. Eligible for

major junior ice hockey Junior hockey is a level of competitive ice hockey generally for players between 16 and 21 years of age. Junior hockey leagues in the United States and Canada are considered amateur (with some exceptions) and operate within regions of each cou ...

in North America, Šalé was selected in the first round, 29th overall, in the 2022 CHL Import Draft by the

. Continuing his tenure with Brno, Šalé in his first full professional season in

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, notching seven goals and seven assists through 43 regular season games. Touted as a potential first-round pick, he was selected 20th overall by the

in the

. He was later signed to a three-year, entry-level contract with the Kraken on 17 July 2023, and expected to play the following season in the

(OHL) with the Colts.

International play

Šalé first represented Czech national under-18 team at the

2021 Hlinka Gretzky Cup The 2021 Hlinka Gretzky Cup is an under-18 international ice hockey tournament that was held in Piešťany, Slovakia and Břeclav, Czech Republic from 2 to 7 August 2021 at FOSFA Aréna in Břeclav and Easton Arena in Piešťany. Preliminary r ...

and in the following year he was recognised as one of the top ranked stars in the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. Šalé won a silver medal with Czech national junior team at the

2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships The 2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships are the 47th edition of the IIHF World Junior Championship, scheduled to be held from December 26, 2022 through January 5, 2023 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Moncton, New Brunswick. They were origina ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Šalé, Eduard 2005 births Living people Czech expatriate ice hockey players in Finland Czech ice hockey left wingers HC Kometa Brno players Ice hockey people from Brno National Hockey League first-round draft picks Seattle Kraken draft picks