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Flames forward Adam Klapka a surprise cut from Czechia’s World Championships roster
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Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
Ryan Pike
May 11, 2026, 10:00 EDTUpdated: May 11, 2026, 01:33 EDT
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On Friday night, the World Championships will kick off in Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland, including a clash between Czechia and the United States in Zurich.
One player that will not be taking part in the festivities is Calgary Flames winger Adam Klapka. In a bit of a shocker, Klapka was absent from Czechia’s roster for the upcoming World Championships when it was announced on Sunday.
Czechia announced a roster that featured three goaltenders, eight defencemen and 14 forwards. With a handful of prominent Czechs unavailable following the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and others still active in the post-season, Klapka, with 79 NHL appearances for the Flames during the regular season, is possibly the most prominent available forward who won’t be on the roster.
Klapka played for Czechia in both precursor tournaments – the Fortuna Hockey Games in Czechia and the Beijer Hockey Games in Sweden– but seemingly didn’t do enough to cement himself on the national team’s Worlds roster. One of Klapka’s most prominent viral moments of the pre-tournaments was not a positive one, featuring him being muscled off the puck by 2026 NHL Draft prospect Viggo Bjorck.
The 14 forwards named to the roster on Sunday were predominantly from the Czech Extraliga:
  • Jakub Flek (HC Kometa Brno), Ondřej Beránek (HC Energie Karlovy Vary), Jiří Černoch (HC Energie Karlovy Vary), Roman Červenka (HC Dynamo Pardubice), Jan Mandát (HC Dynamo Pardubice), Lukáš Sedlák (HC Dynamo Pardubice), Martin Kaut (HC Dynamo Pardubice) and Michal Kovařčík (HC Oceláři Třinec) are all from Czechia’s domestic league
  • From the National League in Switzerland’s EV Zug come Daniel Voženílek and Dominik Kubalík
  • From Farjestad BK in Sweden comes David Tomášek
  • And three NHL-affiliated players are competing: Jaroslav Chmelař (New York Rangers), Matěj Blümel (Boston Bruins) and Matyáš Melovský (New Jersey Devils)
For what it’s worth, Cervenka, Flek, Kubalik, Sedlak and Tomasek all are holdovers from the Olympic team. The four final forward cuts were Klapka, Radovan Pavlík (Mountfield HK, Extraliga), Michal Kunc (a former Utah Mammoth prospect who just signed back in Czechia) and Petr Sikora (a Washington Capitals prospect playing in the AHL with the Hershey Bears).
For what it’s worth, Czechia’s head coach, Radim Rulik, provided a bit of a rationale for the players included and excluded during an interview with the national team’s site (via Google Translate), with skating one of the main criteria for inclusion on the squad:
The coach himself admitted that creating this year’s nomination was one of the most challenging for him. “It was definitely one of the most difficult nominations. I really don’t remember so many apologies, although I completely understand it due to the challenging season. The next series of players was even more balanced,” he recapitulated the demanding process. In addition to the aforementioned skating, thinking also played a role in the selection. “The second main criterion was making the right decisions in a small space. Avoiding losses, having a sense of the situation and being strong in the details.”
It’s the second time in 2026 when Klapka found himself on the outside looking in regarding the national team; he was not named to the men’s team for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy in the winter. Czechia finished eighth in the tournament.
The Flames will be represented at the 2026 World Championships by Devin Cooley (United States), Matt Coronato (United States), Zach Whitecloud (Canada), Olli Maatta (Finland) and Martin Pospisil (Slovakia). The tournament runs May 15-31 in Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland.

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