Scott MacDonald
With COVID-19 cases on the rise in the Czech Republic, the Avalanche have decided it would be best to pull top-forward prospect Martin Kaut from his loan with HC Dynamo Pardubice of the Czech Extraliga and reassign him to MODO Hockey of Sweden’s Allsvensken league.
The Avs 2018 first-round selection (16th overall) joined Dynamo on loan back in September. Since then, coronavirus cases in Kaut’s home country of the Czech Republic have spiked from just over a 1,000 a day to nearly 16,000 new cases per day. With this rapid uptick in COVID numbers, Czechia has shut down, including schools, restaurants, bars and hockey teams in an attempt to gain ground of the virus. With that, the Avalanche thought it best to withdraw Kaut from his loan there and instead send him to the Allsvensken league, the second-highest tier of pro hockey in Sweden.
By comparison, Sweden has been able to keep their average new cases per day under 1,000.
Kaut was originally slated to skate with HC Dynamo until November 5th.
“We have agreed with Colorado that Martin will have a sufficient (game) load with us. We have a contract with him until November 5, and then he will decide how and where Martin will continue. Unfortunately, we are not playing, Martin does not have enough game load, that’s why Colorado decided that Martin is already leaving for Sweden, where he can play,“ Dušan Salfický, the sports director of the Dynamo in Pardubice, told Dyanmo’s website.
“We are sorry that we can no longer use his services,” Salfický added.
Martin Kaut skated in just four games with HC Dynamo, scoring one goal in his short return with his former team. The recently-turned 21-year-old winger played for Pardubice in various capacities since 2015. He started with the U-16 team, jumping to the U-18’s, then U-20 before finally landing with HC Dyanmo’s big club.
In total, Kaut skated in 68 regular season games with HC Dynamo Pardubice, scoring 10 goals and 21 points in that span, adding another five points in seven playoff games before the Avalanche drafted him from Dynamo in 2018.
Kaut is expected to make his debut with MODO on Friday against Västervik IK.
When the Avalanche open training camp for the 2021 NHL season, it is still expected Kaut will return to North America.