Tomas Hamara

September 2023 – Hamara played in the prospects tournament held in Buffalo and saw some time on the power play and penalty kill. He should be heading back to the OHL with Kitchener in 2023-24 and will need to improve on certain aspects to his game. He has a tendency to skate the puck into trouble at times and will need to improve his breakout passes. He has shown some improvement in the offensive zone in walking the blueline and keeping the puck in the zone, so he should be able to improve upon the 17 points in 56 games he had in 2022-23. Grant Campbell

May 2023 – After playing in the World Juniors for the second time, more was expected of Hamara in his first stint in the OHL. It’s expected that he will return for his 19-year-old season, but he will need to improve upon his offensive production of just 17 points in 56 games and continue to work on his defensive game. There is the temptation to have him play professionally in Tappara in the Finnish Liiga as he did manage to play 20 games there in 2021-2022. Grant Campbell

December 2022 – Hamara will be joining Czechia this year at the 2023 World Junior Championships. He has had an up and down season so far with Kitchener of the OHL and has two goals and nine assists in 24 games while going minus 13. This will be his second WJC after playing seven games in 2022 with one assist. Grant Campbell

August 2022 – Hamara was one of three 17-year-olds on the Czechia team at the U20 World Juniors in Edmonton. He played in all seven of their games and had two assists while averaging just over 18 minutes per game. I was impressed by his passing abilities from his own zone and poise with the puck. He got himself into trouble a few times going back on the puck on his backhand as he closed off his passing options and limited his sight lines. He should be back for the 2023 U20 World Juniors.  Grant Campbell

July 2022 – Hamara was drafted 87th overall by the Ottawa Senators. Pat Quinn

October 2021 – Hamara had a solid season with Tappara’s U20 team in 2020-21, recording three goals and 18 points in 35 games played. His point production was the best among U20 SM-sarja’s U17-defenders. In April, Hamara was selected to the Czech U18 World’s team but was injured in just the second game, recording one assist in the tournament before that. He also missed this year’s Hlinka Gretzky Cup due to injury. He has shown great potential to be ready for Liiga action, but it is doubtful that he will earn a regular role this season as Tappara’s Liiga team is deep on the back end.

Hamara is an offensive-minded two-way defender who likes to support his team’s offensive rushes. His biggest strength is his on-puck game as he combines great puck skills with reliable decision making. Hamara doesn’t make many hasty decisions with the puck, even when pressured. He is strong on breakouts with very precise and deceptive passing ability. He plays the offensive zone blue line well, with poise and calmness. Hamara is a really smooth skater and utilizes that skill well to push play forward. He is also good at pivoting away from opponents to create more space. He has good smarts and his positioning is good as well. Hamara isn’t the biggest nor the physically strongest player but he defends pretty well despite those limitations. He likes to use his stick to disrupt chances and plays good one-on-one defense as well. Instead of trying to use physicality and hitting while defending, he just usually blocks skating lanes and just takes away the opponent’s space. Defending the rush, he controls gaps pretty well and directs opponents towards the boards to disarm them. Hamara has played both Liiga and U20 this season, and there have been some minor consistency issues at the U20 level. At this point, however, I don’t see that as a big problem. Eetu Siltanen