PRAGUE — The arc of Ondřej Kaše’s career is basically one continuous comeback story.
He climbs. He gets knocked back. He climbs. He gets knocked back.
And here the 28-year-old winger is, climbing again — sparking curiosity and considerable interest from NHL scouts while playing front-line minutes for host Czechia at the IIHF World Championship.
Most importantly, Kaše is approaching the end of a season in which he’s been at full health throughout, and it’s left him believing that he’s ready to give it another go in North America next year.
“It’s still in my head, for sure,” Kaše told The Athletic on Monday. “I’m not sure after the championship what the situation will be. So we will see with my agent.”
That led Kaše back home to Czechia, signing with Litvinov HC last summer in order to play with his brother, David, himself a former NHLer who is 14 months younger. Kaše readily admits he didn’t know what the year would bring. He wound up finishing third in league scoring, with 54 points, while playing in 48 of the team’s 52 games.
“I wasn’t sure how healthy I am and all season was actually great,” he said. “I felt unbelievable. All injuries were done. I played with my brother. Even as kids, we wanted to always play together and this was our chance. It was a great season. We lost in the semifinals and I think for the team it was pretty good.”
It might be his performance at this World Championship that compels another NHL team to give Kaše a chance. Among those scouting the tournament games live at O2 Arena are multiple general managers and assistant general managers, plus several North American-based scouts.
What they’ve seen here is a player who remains a strong skater, doesn’t shy away from engaging in puck battles and has scored two goals and five points in six games heading into Tuesday’s group stage finale against Canada.
Add it all up and Kaše hasn’t looked remotely out of place in a tournament populated by NHLers and those from European-based pro leagues with more profile than the Czech Extraliga.
“I think he played almost every game this season, so that’s very important for him,” said David Kämpf, a friend since childhood and former teammate with the Toronto Maple Leafs. “He’s still a great player. I think he can play in the NHL again, for sure.”
The only question, really, is an impossible one to answer with any certainty: Can he stay healthy enough to make the gamble worthwhile?
Kaše was limited to just three games with the Boston Bruins in 2020-21. He dressed in 50 the following season in Toronto, scoring 14 goals and 27 points, before signing a $1.5 million contract as a free agent with Carolina and seeing 20 shifts and 11:02 of ice time during a season-opening win over Columbus.
That stands as his last NHL game.
“The Carolina year wasn’t great,” said Kaše. “I feel kind of bad for playing just one game in Carolina. They signed me. They were thinking I was good. I was good, but some things you can’t control.”
Kaše plays with a tinted visor to help ease his sensitivity to light and has received treatment from Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, a Michigan-based sports concussion specialist. As Kutcher explained to The Athletic in a March 2022 story, Kaše has a “complex set of neurological variables that needed to be treated comprehensively” rather than simply something that might be labeled more broadly as a concussion issue.
He is not dealing with a “permanent brain injury kind of problem,” Kutcher said.
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Kaše credits the treatment he received during that lost season in Carolina for where he is today.
“I wasn’t sure kind of what happened, and we figured it out with the doctors,” he said. “I think I was in a good treatment program and everything was set up for this season so that I was ready to play.”
Still, it has not been an easy road.
Kaše in many ways has defied the odds by playing in 289 career NHL games after being selected with the 205th pick by Anaheim in 2014. As a kid, he saw peers given opportunities he wasn’t. And as an adult, he’s only remained healthy enough to appear in more than 60 games one season — when he scored 20 goals and 38 points in 66 games for the Ducks in 2017-18.
However, competing now for a gold medal on home ice in Prague and with NHL teams starting to show renewed interest in his services, Kaše sounds hopeful about what lies ahead.
“Everything’s perfect,” he said. “It was a dream before the season to make the World Championship and I’m here. So I’m very excited, thank you.”
(Photo: Michal Cizek / AFP via Getty Images)
