Goal Of The Year Candidate

The young man in the image to the left is Jiri Sekac. You may remember he had a cup of coffee with the Montreal Canadiens, Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, and Arizona Coyotes before he left for greener pastures in the KHL with Ak Bars Kazan. Honestly, he was always seen as a solid talent with above-average skill, and yet somehow Montreal managed to deal him to Anaheim for Devante Smith-Pelly. Anaheim then dealt him to Chicago for Ryan Garbutt. Chicago then waived him and Arizona claimed him. Sekac will participated in the 2015 Skills Competition as one of the rookies who got an invite, so I'm not sure why all these teams gave up on him.

In any case, Sekac is now playing in the KHL for Ak Bars Kazan as stated above. Last season saw him get his feet wet in 47 games where he scored 13 goals and 14 assists, but of his four goals thus far this season, he might have scored the GOTY (pronounced "Gotty") - the Goal of the Year - in a four-point effort against HC Slovan. Take a look at this dirty dangle he lays on Ivan Svanry and ridiculous goal he pots past Jakub Stepanuk.

Jiří Sekáč records 2nd straight 4-point game (2 G, 2 A), powers Ak Bars over Slovan!#SLVvsAKB – 3:6 pic.twitter.com/OOiuUcrvPw

— KHL (@khl_eng) September 20, 2017

I'm sorry, but WHAT?!? That's OUTSTANDING! With his four points against HC Slovan today, Sekac jumps ahead of Anton Lander's ten points on the season and just behind Justin Azevedo's twelve points. At age 26, this guy should still be in the NHL, but he's scoring highlight-reel goals and giving nightmares to opposing teams with his skills.

If the Czech Republic is looking for a goal-scorer at the Olympics, Sekac should be the guy who gets a tap on the shoulder. That skill can't be ignored.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!