After two successful seasons in the WHL, Andrej Kukuca is heading back to Europe. Kukuca will be re-joining his former club, HK Dukla Trencin, in the Slovak Extraliga, Slovakia’s highest-level hockey league.
This will be a homecoming for the 6-foot-2, 185-pound right winger, who is originally from Trencin. Kukuca’s contract is for one year and includes an AHL escape clause, according to the team’s post on their Facebook page.
Kukuca shines in Seattle
Kukuca joined the Thunderbirds in 2018 after being selected in the first round of the CHL Import Draft. The center immediately thrived in Seattle, registering 25 goals and 32 assists in his first year in the WHL. During the 2019 postseason, Kukuca led the team in scoring with four goals and three assists in Seattle’s six games.
Kukuca built on his impressive first year in the league by leading the Thunderbirds in scoring during the 2019-20 season with 26 goals and 31 assists for 57 points in 63 games. He was on pace to break 60 points for the year before the season was canceled due to COVID-19. Kukuca registered two hat tricks during the season which helped propel him to the top spot among Seattle’s scorers. He also had 14 multi-point games as well as one six-game point streak and two five-game point streaks.
Going into the 2020-21 season, Seattle hopes that someone can step up to deliver the offensive spark Kukuca provided. One player to watch will be Conner Roulette, who scored 19 goals and 20 assists for 39 points in 54 games. That gave him the second-highest points-per-game average (0.72) on the team behind Kukuca’s 0.90 points per game.
Returning to familiar ice
Prior to coming to Seattle, Kukuca spent four seasons in Slovakia with HC Dukla Trencin on its U18 and U20 squads. He also appeared in seven games with HK 95 Povazska Bystrica U18 during the 2014-15 season.
In total, Kukuca appeared in 170 games over four years, scoring 111 goals and 164 assists. One of his best seasons came in 2015-16 when he scored 30 goals and 46 assists between the U18 and U20 HC Dukla Trencin teams. His 76 points that season were a career high.
During the 2017-18 season, Kukuca led the Slovakia U20 League with 43 goals. He became just the third player of the decade in the league to score 40 or more goals in a season, and no other player during the decade had more goals in a season than Kukuca.
Kukuca also racked up some valuable playoff experience while in Europe. During his four years in Slovakia, he played in 42 games while scoring 34 goals and 13 assists.
In 2019, Kukuca represented Slovakia at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship, appearing in five games. During that tournament, Slovakia advanced to the playoff round but only earned three points in four games. As a result, Slovakia had to face Russia in a quarterfinal matchup, losing 8-3. Russia went on to win the bronze that year.
Kukuca will get one year to prove he belongs in his home country’s best league. He previously appeared in five games with the main HC Dukla Trencin squad back in the 2017-18 season but did not register a point.
