15-year-old Slovakian standout becomes youngest player to score a goal
In 1998, a 16-year-old Slovakian forward set the Tipos Extraliga record as the youngest player ever to score a goal in league play. That teenager is now 38, and has played more than 1,000 NHL games for six different teams, having won a Stanley Cup in 2014 with the Los Angeles Kings. Marian Gaborik has compiled an impressive hockey resume, but last Tuesday, one of those accolades would be topped by Zvolen, Slovakia, native Dalibor Dvorsky.
The 15-year-old broke an Extraliga record that stood for 23 years, when Dvorsky scored his first career goal against HK Nitra. He was 163 days younger than when Gaborik achieved the same feat.
Dvorsky began the 2020-21 season in Sweden’s J18 league with AIK. He was having a very productive start to the campaign with four goals and 14 points in the first six games of the season. Then, Swedish youth leagues began pausing game action in November, into December and well into 2021 as the hockey federation has still limited on-ice play into early February.
That delay in Sweden brought on an opportunity for Dvorsky to return to his home country, playing for HC Banska Bystrica, in Slovakia’s top professional league. Not eligible for the NHL Draft until 2023, Dvorsky is quickly becoming one of the top young prospects in Central Europe and certainly a name to know in the years to come.
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