Slovak players from the Russian Continental Hockey League (KHL) have been nominated to the national squad ahead of the Winter Olympics ice hockey qualification tournament.  

This decision follows a close internal vote in the Slovak ice hockey bodies and months of disputes which were joined by politicians from the ruling left-right coalition of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico. Slovakia is the first major ice hockey side to have reinstated KHL players to its national team.

KHL players have been banned from national squads by their countries’ ice hockey unions for playing in a league which openly supports the Russian army and its invasion of Ukraine, including the display of the letter “Z” during hockey games. Russia is banned from competing in international ice hockey tournaments following the 2022 invasion.  

After the unveiling of the Slovak national roster, Martin Pospisil, a forward from the Calgary Flames side of the North American Hockey League, said he was re-considering his participation in the squad which includes altogether three KHL players, defenders Martin Gernat and Mario Grman and forward Adam Liska.

“I am a person who has moral principles that are difficult to go against,” Pospisil was quoted as saying by Sports daily Dennik Sport, adding that “it is still an honour for me to wear the national jersey. Sometime man has to put sport aside, but it is difficult to talk about it now for me.”

President of the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation and former NHL star Miroslav Satan said that nobody wants to force Pospisil, who eventually agreed to play in the qualification, to change his views.

“We know that society is divided and perhaps in our dressing room there will be differing views. However, we want to demonstrate that in spite of this, we are capable of cooperating and together fulfilling the goal of qualifying for the Olympic games,” Satan told Slovak media.    

Ice hockey is, together with football, the most popular collective sport in Slovakia. The upcoming Winter Olympic Games will feature NHL players for the first time since the Sochi Games in 2014, which automatically makes the ice hockey tournament the highest-profile international competition in the sport.

The issue of reinstating KHL players to the national team had been frequently picked up by the politicians from the government, which has adopted Kremlin-pleasing positions on the war, including calling for peace negotiations with Moscow and ending state military support of Ukraine shortly after coming to power last autumn.

When Slovak goalkeeper Julius Hudacek returned from KHL to the Czech extraleague, fans of the Czech side Kladno protested his inclusion on the roster, forcing the club management to end the contract with Hudacek, who eventually left for the German top league.

Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, whose election campaign was backed by Fico’s government,  openly supported Hudacek, saying in January “I am sorry how politics intervenes with a career of an innocent man, who only makes living with his talent.”

A wave of international players left KHL following the 2021-22 season, but others signed new contracts despite the invasion and continued playing in the league, including Hudacek.  

Bratislava and Latvian capital Riga will host the final qualification tournaments at the break of August and September and are favourites to advance to the Olympic Games, which will feature top-seeded teams from the international rankings, including Canada, Czechia, Finland, Sweden and the USA.  

The majority of the Slovak squad is comprised by players from the Czech extraleague and NHL.