Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal, pictured, is a single of a handful of pending restricted free of charge agents on the Ducks’ roster. Top scorers Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry are portion of that group. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Pictures)

ANAHEIM — Ideally, Lukas Dostal would be playing games effectively into the spring at the Planet Championships, which are scheduled for May possibly 12-28 and co-hosted by Riga, Latvia and Tampere, Finland.

The Ducks’ rookie goaltender has answered the contact when asked to play internationally for his native Czech Republic at the junior level and created his Planet Championships debut in May possibly final year for the national group, beating Fantastic Britain, five-1.

It is various a year later.

Dostal explained why earlier this week.

“I talked about it with (Ducks GM) Pat (Verbeek) a small bit and also with the national group,” Dostal mentioned. “Obviously, I would like to go, but I do not have a contract so far. I told the national group if we sorted it out somehow, then I’d like to go. But you do not want to get hurt, if anything occurred.

“So devoid of a contract, I’m in all probability not going to go.”

Luckily, management with the national group knew exactly where Dostal was coming from.

“The GM is Martin Havlat,” Dostal mentioned of the former NHL forward, who played 14 seasons. “He told me he understood, has been in that circumstance so numerous occasions.”

Dostal, who will be coming out of his entry-level contract, is a single of a handful of pending restricted free of charge agents amongst the Ducks. Most prominent are the team’s two top scorers, Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry. In an interview in March, Zegras cited the contract as a achievable issue against playing in the Worlds, saying then: “With the contract stuff up in the air, I really feel like that is the 1st priority.”

Ducks rookie Mason McTavish would be an apparent selection to represent Group Canada, but McTavish completed the season injured and did not play in the common-season finale against the Kings on Thursday evening at Honda Center since of an upper-physique injury. It is understood that it is not a significant injury but maybe the ideal factor for him at this point could be a prolonged break.

Even ahead of the injury, McTavish noted that he had played a lot of hockey the final couple of years, speaking about the physical and mental toll.