Former Rhino Tomas Urbanec has signed with HC Dukla Jihlava in his home country of the Czech Republic!
The forward played five seasons with the Long Beach Bombers and 25 games with the Las Vegas Thunderbirds before the Rhinos acquired him in January. Heading into the playoffs of his final season of his junior career, Urbanec’s main objective was to hoist the Thorne Cup, something he had not been able to do in his first five seasons in the WSHL. Although he and the Rhinos were on track to possibly earn their third consecutive title, the season was cut short due to COVID-19. Despite never winning a championship, Urbanec broke records to become the League’s All-Time Points Leader as well as the All-Time Games Played Leader. He finished his junior career with 161 goals and 201 assists for a total of 362 points in 241 games played.
Now, Urbanec seeks to earn a spot on HC Dukla Jihlava’s roster. The team plays in the Czech city of Jihlava, which is just over an hour outside of the capital city, Prague, and just under two hours from his hometown of Zlin. Founded in 1956, HC Dukla Jihlava now plays in the Chance Liga, the Czech Republic’s second-highest level of professional hockey. Before the 2019-20 post season, Jihlava had posted a record of 13-1-5-11 (W-OTW-OTL-L) and was ranked 9th of 16 teams in the league.
The team’s official website shows Tomas recently attending team workouts. Read more about him on HC Dukla Jihlava’s site at https://www.hcdukla.cz/clanek.asp?id=11865.
