After several seasons of bouncing between the AHL and ECHL levels- and putting up decent enough numbers while doing so- Bednar has chosen to sign in Finland for the 2025-2026 campaign. The big netminder will turn 23 this summer, and though it doesn’t necessarily signal the end of his chances of being an NHL goalie, one would presume his chances less with the trip back to Europe.

The 2020-21 season was a shaky one for the 2020 fourth-round selection. Transitioning from the Czech professional league to the QMJHL in early March, he recorded slightly better numbers with Acadie-Bathurst but still demonstrated inconsistencies in the net. Some nights, Bednar looked close to unstoppable, allowing just one or two goals. On other nights, however, he would surrender four or five, even allowing seven in game two of Acadie-Bathurst’s playoff series against Charlottetown. To be fair, the Titan typically allowed a lot of shots at Bednar as he faced north of 35 shots on seven occasions and he even faced 40-plus shots on goal in five games. Responding to a high volume of shots can certainly take its toll on a netminder and Bednar’s 2020-21 production in net should be taken with a grain of salt. Still just 18-years-old, the 6-4, 196 pound goalie still has plenty of time to work out the kinks before Detroit even considers bringing him to the professional ranks.

It has been a rough start to the season for Detroit’s fourth-round selection in the 2020 draft. Bednar has played five games at the Czech men’s level, sporting a .867 save percentage and 4.16 goals-against averageIt is important to remember, however, that he is still just an 18-year-old goaltender playing in a professional men’s league and is still thought of highly enough in the Czech program to have been included as their third goaltender at the recent World Junior Championships. He will have a chance to compete for the starting job at next year’s tournament and a strong finish to the 2020-2021 season would go a long way. Nick Richard

Bednář was drafted 107th overall by the Red Wings. Like most 18-year-old goalies, Bednář will need multiple years before he’s even ready to play in the AHL.

Bednář is a big, mobile goalie. He is calm in net, uses his size and stays square to the puck, but he can also make some stellar saves thanks to his good reflexes. On the other side, sometimes he looks too lazy in net. He has solid puck handling skills, he even scored a goal at the under-16 level. He likes to play with his stick but he needs to minimize mistakes with the puck. Last season, at age 16, Bednář made his Extraliga debut with Karlovy Vary. He was outstanding in almost all of the 15 games he played, and he helped his team avoid relegation from the top league in the country. He wasn’t as great this season recording a 4.39 goals against average and 0.844 save percentage in 13 games but he generally played against top opponents. His two superb performances came against regular season winner Liberec. He has always been great playing against guys the same age at international level. Bednář is expected to leave Karlovy Vary after this year’s NHL Draft, where he is projected to go somewhere in the third or fourth round.