Promising Icelandic hockey players often develop their careers in their Nordic neighbours’ leagues: 17 players on the 2014 Iceland’s men’s national team roster, during one point of their careers, skated in either Sweden, Finland, Denmark or Norway. Teenage goalkeeper Johann Ragnarsson is following this trail, but is now carving out a career in Czechia instead: “By becoming the first Icelandic player in the Czech Republic, I wanted to do something no Icelander had ever done before”. Ragnarsson just turned 19 and has the ambition to play hockey professionally, either in the top division or second division: he achieved ‘hero status’ following his displays on home ice last April when Iceland won gold at the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group B and the teenager was selected as the tournament´s best goalkeeper. During the final game against Belgium, Ragnarsson saved 44 shots in an epic 3-2 win, Iceland’s first gold medal at the men’s senior level since 2006. Five months on, Ragnarsson is currently playing for Iceland’s U20 national team, newcomers at the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship Division II Group B in Belgrade, Serbia. During the summer of 2021, when the time was right for Johann to go abroad, Czechia became the most enticing prospect, thanks to Miloslav Racansky, a Czech-born naturalized Icelandic national player and coach who currently is the assistant coach of the Icelandic U20 national team: he contacted his uncle who is working for Rytiri Vlasim, the club he started playing with in Czech Republic, and Ragnarsson embarked on his Czech adventure in July 2021. Staying with Racansky’s parents, Ragnarsson soon found his feet in Vlasim, home of 11,000 people, where the common language at first was the town’s passion for hockey…
Read the full article and interview with Ragnarsson, his father Johansson and Miloslav Racansky on the IIHF.com website