Jakub Koreis

It’s always great to be featured on lists and compared to others. Unless it’s a list of the biggest letdowns.

In June 2002, the Phoenix Coyotes selected me with the 19th overall pick in the NHL Draft. Columbus took Rick Nash first overall and other big names like Alex Steen and Duncan Keith went in the first two rounds, but there was me at No. 19. That’s the first round: a stamp of success and promise. A confirmation that you are on the right path. 

Not that many Czechs have been chosen higher than me, but I never played in the NHL; not even one game. Instead, my name has appeared on the lists of biggest draft mistakes. That’s not how I feel about my career.

I can still feel the euphoria that spread through my body when Phoenix picked me. Imagine your dreams coming true at age 18. That’s how I felt the second my name was read by Wayne Gretzky at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Yeah, that Wayne Gretzky: the greatest player in NHL history.

He was the co-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes and by the time he went to the stage, my agent had already turned to me to tell me to be ready. Oh, and my agent at the time was Bobby Orr. I had two absolute giants of my sport around me at that time.

I was sitting very close to the stage, excited and nervous. All of my feelings were mixing inside of me as I watched Gretzky on the stage, like the generations before me had watched him work his magic on the ice. He called my name. Well, not exactly. He mispronounced it as something like Kourelse, but I didn’t care. Wayne Gretzky wanted me to be a part of his team! For the first time in my life, I had a feeling of absolute joy.

The next few moments of my memory are lost behind a fog. I know I shook hands with Orr and went up the stairs to the stage where this hockey god was waiting for me. It felt like a movie scene; something that just couldn’t be true. I realized the whole stadium was watching me. All of the eyes and cameras were on me and the only thing I could think of at that moment was not to trip on the damn stairs.

Gretzky shook my hand, I put on the jersey, I accepted congratulations, I heard the words that were welcoming me to the Coyotes. ‘Stay calm, you will probably meet Wayne every day in the stadium now,’ went through my head. Before I could even grasp the magnitude of the moment, I found myself in interviews, photoshoots and whatnot. I felt great and relieved that it was over.

After arriving at the hotel, I immediately called my dad, Jiri: my hockey idol. I admired him for all my childhood when he played for Pilsen. It was unimaginable to call from Canada to the Czech Republic using a mobile phone back then. I had to use a regular telephone and the internet was just a baby at the time, so my dad had no idea what was going on. He waited until the middle of the night before I called him.

“Dad, I got picked by Phoenix as the 19th pick,” I told him, excited.
“Nineteenth?” was his first reaction.

That just shows how little was known back then about the draft in the Czech Republic. Just a few people knew what it meant to be chosen in the first round. I didn't even understand how important it was until I started playing juniors in the States. It just showed how good I was; better than other players at my age.

Instead of accepting this fact and getting a confidence boost from it, I still had some unnecessary doubts about whether or not I really belonged there.

Unfortunately, this is a character trait that I have carried since I was a child. I tend to overthink things and come up with absolutely unreal possibilities. At the time of the draft, I reminded myself that it was just the beginning — that being drafted is a success but nothing more had been achieved. This was obviously true, but a little bit of confidence wouldn’t have hurt me.

All I had to do was realize that NHL clubs had been watching me all the time, throughout the season. You wouldn’t even know it, but they gather information about you from so many places and if, in the end, they pick you, there has to be something special about you. Phoenix believed that I was the 19th best player in my year, but I wasn’t able to figure this out and use it to my advantage. I know this now, but back then I just focused on working even harder to get better.

I’ve never had problems with working out. I’d even say I did it more than others. During the summer after the draft, I felt like I was working harder than I ever did, but when I arrived at training camp, I realized it wasn’t enough.

The intensity of the practices was way above my level. Sometimes, I felt like I just couldn’t catch up. It was obvious that if I wanted to play here I had to find someone who could show me the correct preparation methods and how to improve.

I got sent to juniors in Guelph, so I spent my next summer with a conditioning coach and was in the best possible condition. But the 2004-05 NHL season never started due to the lockout. Not only did myNHL opportunity get pushed a year down the line, but the farm team in Utah was filled with other ambitious players. 

I was still just 20 at the time. There was still time to move up. My first season in the AHL was good. Everyone felt like I was knocking on the door of the NHL team, and that I should be ready when the next camp started. When I look back, I realize this was when the NHL window opened for me, during my second year in the AHL — during the worst season of my life.

I had really grown up physically during the summer and when I arrived in the AHL, Gretzky, our coach at the time, and general manager Mike Barnett told me to continue what I was doing and I'd be one of the first to get called up. I wanted to go up so badly.

I remember coming to the bulletin board during camp and this was our roster. Left wing, Shane Doan. Center, me. Right wing, Brett Hull.

I wasn’t there the next time, but in the only exhibition game that I played for Phoenix, I shared the ice with Doan and Brett Hull. Brett freakin’ Hull! That was the first and last time I wore an NHL team jersey.