Blues draft Dalibor Dvorsky 10th overall
The St. Louis Blues selected Dalibor Dvorsky with the 10th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Dalibor Dvorsky
Position: Center
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 200 lbs
Shoots: Left
Age: 18
Club: AIK (HockeyAllsvenskan)
Nationality: 🇸🇰
NHL Central Scouting final ranking: 3rd among European skaters
2022-23 stats
| GP | G | A | |
|---|---|---|---|
| HockeyAllsvenskan | 38 | 6 | 8 |
| World juniors | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| U18 Worlds | 7 | 8 | 5 |
(Stats source: EliteProspects.com)
Not unlike Slovakian counterpart Juraj Slafkovsky, Dvorsky's best performances have come while donning his nation's colors. At the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, Dvorsky scored eight goals and 12 points in five games, outproducing the eventual first overall pick that year in Slafkovsky despite being a year younger.
Dvorsky reminded scouts of his prowess at the U18s in April. He led Slovakia with eight goals and 13 points, good enough to land on the tournament All-Star team. Dvorsky played 29:18 in the bronze-medal clash clash against Canada, which Slovakia lost in overtime.
The 17-year-old has dominated the Swedish junior circuit but hasn't found the same level of success against pros. Dvorsky tallied 21 points in 10 Under-20 games this season and only 14 points in 38 contests in the Swedish second-tier league, the HockeyAllsvenskan.
Though playing against men is challenging for any junior-aged player, there are examples of prospects producing in recent HockeyAllsvenskan history. Elias Pettersson scored 41 points in 43 games at 18 years of age. William Nylander, Alexander Wennberg, and David Pastrnak were all regular contributors in the HockeyAllsvenskan in their draft years.
Prospects that haven't made an NHL impact, such as Jonathan Dahlen, Robin Kovacs, Filip Hallander, and Jacob Olofsson, hovered around 0.5 points per game in the league at the same age.
The hope is that Dvorsky's junior production is a sign of what's to come rather than his professional results. It's worked out for Filip Forsberg, Jesper Bratt, and Andre Burakovsky, all of whom produced at a similar or lesser clip to Dvorsky.
Dvorsky will make the jump to the SHL next season with IK Oskarshamn. He signed a two-year contract with the Swedish side a week prior to the draft.
What they're saying
"Dvorsky is quite dangerous inside the offensive zone," The Athletic's Corey Pronman wrote. "He has excellent puck skills in small areas and can make checkers miss routinely in open ice."
"While his two-way skills are good, I still don't know that his defensive game is at a level that would allow him to project as favorably into a top-six role down the line," wrote FloHockey's Chris Peters. "That said, his shot, his doggedness on the puck, and his feel for the offensive zone all make him a legitimate scoring threat down the middle."
"Dvorsky is a highly talented and intelligent playmaker who can threaten coverage in a variety of ways, whether that's carving through it in control and finishing cleanly from the home plate area, sliding off of coverage to find pockets of space to get open into, or drawing coverage and facilitating," wrote The Athletic's Scott Wheeler.
Click here to view Dvorsky's highlights.