Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dominik Badinka hopes to be on fast track to NHL

Dominik Badinka is an 18-year-old who says he stays away from junk food and does not eat sweets.

“I’m a very healthy guy,” he said Tuesday, smiling.

So no Big Macs or fries?

“No,” he said.

No Snickers bars or any candy?

“No. I’m being very careful about what I put in my body, basically,” he said.

It’s just that Badinka is determined to do everything he can to reach the NHL as quickly as possible, which the defenseman hopes will come with the Carolina Hurricanes next few years.

“I think I can be NHL-ready in a year or two,” he said.

If that takes eating right and watching his nutrition, he plans to do it. If it takes becoming a better, stronger skater, he plans to do it. Better stick-handler? He plans to do it.

“I’m not the fastest but I’m not slow,” he said Tuesday. “My shot isn’t the hardest but isn’t bad. For me, it’s about getting stronger. Then I will get faster and the shot will be harder.”

Badinka, a native of Czechia, has been attending the Canes’ prospects development camp this week at Invisalign Arena. He was Carolina’s first pick in the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas, albeit early in the second round after the Canes decided to trade away their first-round pick for a pair of second-rounders.

Badinka, after playing last season for Malmo in the Swedish Hockey League, hoped not to be around and available on the second day of the draft at the Sphere. He said some of the feedback he had gotten from NHL teams prior to the draft indicated he might go in the first round.

He has good size at 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds – with 7-8% body fat. He’s a right-shot D-man. He has a solid all-around game, had played in the SHL.

The first night, Badinka sat and sat, waiting for his name to be called. He fidgeted a little. Pick after pick was made and Badinka sat with his parents and waited, watching others go up after being called.

“It was terrible,” he said. “I was almost laughing. It was like mixed emotions, both sad and laughing. You keep thinking you’re going and you’re not, and you sit there for four hours and you don’t talk to your parents. So it was tough. A stressful day.”

The wait was much shorter on the second day. Carolina, with the second pick of the second round. No. 34 overall, took Badinka.

“We got him on the second day but in terms of talent, you talk about an incredibly mobile defenseman that is hard to get around,” Canes assistant general manager Darren Yorke said Tuesday. “To close and play fast defensively versus the rush is a huge strength of his. Get him in the zone and he can stay tight.

“There’s no hesitation (passing). He sees his options. He has the poise to accept the forecheck and look through the progressions. He really has the tools that are needed to be a strong defenseman in the NHL.”

Badinka said his father played soccer in the Czech leagues and some assumed Dominik might do the same.

But a new ice rink for hockey had been built in his home city of Chomutov, northwest of Prague.

“They said they would give free equipment to try it,” he said

Badinka said he was 6 years old when he first tried it. He liked it.

“It caught me right away,” he said. “I knew I wanted to play that.”

Badinka stuck with soccer, too, until he was 14 and the choice was made: hockey was his year-round sport.

“My dad, he wasn’t happy,” Badinka said, smiling again. “Now, he’s happy. He doesn’t even watch football anymore.”

Badinka played in Czechia, both in the junior league and internationally with the junior national teams, until leaving for Finland in the 2022-23 season, joining the Jokerit junior team. Last season, it was Malmo in Sweden. He played 17 games for Malmo’s junior team, then 33 with Malmo’s SHL squad, the Redhawks.

As for being a second-rounder in the draft, Badinka has put that behind him now, saying he is heeding the words from his agent and others.

“First round, second round, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s all about what you do on the ice.”