Toronto, Ontario
Shock. Disbelief. Confusion.

That’s how the now Minnesota Chiefs prospect felt after hearing his name being called to the stage.

Zivan Zidek is just coming off a crazy ride of a rookie season with the Colorado Raptors, and an emotional ride for the prospect. It started with a slow start to the season, the prospect got in trouble with the head office twice and struggles to produce on the ice, until post deadline where the young prospect showed plenty of emotion after the Raptors selled off the team, both off ice and on ice. He was hungry for a playoff run, along with the rest of the the Raptors rookies. The prospect ended the season with 14 points, most coming in the second half of the season. After helping the team push themselves into the playoffs, Zivan Zidek changed up his game helping the team into the finals, putting up a solid 8 points, until being swept by the Scarecrows in the finals.

“Crazy.” is how Zidek described that season. “A lot of stuff went buy, I was damn emotional about a lot of things that happened on and off the ice time. I had disagreements with the management team over selling the house at the deadline. But all in all I am damn proud of how the Raptors finished the season. No one had us pegged for the finals, we all expected to get swept, but we really put the jets on somehow. It’s all about the will. And we showed the most will during those playoffs of all the teams. I’m proud as f**k.”

After the season was wrapped up, Zivan Zidek took a trip to his home country, the Czech Republic to train with his fellow Czech Mates, Konstantin Voloshin and Jakub Novak in preparation for next season. “Volo and Jakub are great man. Couldn’t ask for any better linemates.”

With his training going on, Zideks focus was also in impressing general managers for the upcoming draft. Zivan has shown he feels he’s been ranked and talked about unfairly, with “high risk pick” and “likely a bad presence in the locker room” and “likely to stall development” being stated constantly by scouts and analysts.

“Barely any mail” said Zidek’s agent Matej Elias pre draft. “No team really seems interested in Zivan [Zidek] as their first choice.”

And with no expectations, Zivan was going into the draft knowing one thing. “The Steelhawks are going to take Zidek with the 21st overall pick.” Zivan thought of this as ridiculous, didn’t want to accept that he’d fall this much. “Nah nothing against the Steelhawks. They’re one of the teams I actually had a good time talking with.” Unfortunately for Zidek he wouldn’t accept this fact. “I didn’t really think I’d go anywhere before 13 overall. I was at the draft with Volo[shin] and Jakub [Novak]. Volo went to Toronto, so it left just me and Jakub out here. Hamilton moved down to 14. ‘Damn’ was the first thing that came to my mind. Maybe they’ll take me with 14? Then they moved down again, than they shipped the pick out for some future scraps. ‘Fuck. Maybe I’m actually going 21 here.’ Then 17 overall came up, the Rage pick I think. Maybe it was 18. I was hoping it was me, I spoke with the Rage co GM a lot, but I knew they were debating between me and Jakub. They took Jakub. So I was on my own in my seat. New England then moved up to 18. I was hoping I would play with Herb Robert you know, talked with their GMs as well. I don’t know who they took, I was somewhat disappointed but it was some solid defense. I think they need defense. I sat back and and accepted that I’m going to Hamilton, so I hit up my phone and started texted some people I knew. Then I heard the words. I only heard my name”

“My name was up on the board next to the Chiefs logo. I yelled what the fuck and didn’t really want to get up.”

“Shock, disbelief, confusion. That’s how I felt.”

“Me and my agent made it pretty clear I didn’t want to play with Minnesota. Them and the Panthers and Dragons were among teams I didn’t want to play for.” For Zidek this isn’t the only thing keeping him upset at this point. “I wish they contacted me pre draft. Didn’t make much sense that they got me without even consulting me about how I felt with playing for Minnesota. It’s a pretty garbage management move, and I don’t think I’m the only recent draftee who feels the same.”

With all the drama going around Zivan Zidek, the now Czech Republic prospect has said that he will be working out a contract with the Chiefs. “Just because I didn’t want to be here doesn’t mean I won’t give them a chance. I did get the oppurtunity to talk with Geoff Moore and Derek Bohne, those two seem like cool people I’d play with. If it doesn’t work out, I can’t say much more then I told you so.”

“And I did.”