Dominik Badinka returns to Hurricanes development camp older, bigger, stronger
Dominik Badinka played his first three hockey games in North America last season with the Chicago Wolves, and they proved to be eye-opening.
The defenseman, drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round in 2024, first finished up his season with Malmo in the Swedish Hockey League, then headed to Chicago. He arrived in time for two regular-season AHL games, then was in for one Calder Cup playoff game.
Some baptismal, too.
“It was different, a totally different game,” Badinka said Monday at the Canes prospects development camp. “It’s not that it was harder or I was more tired after the game, but a different style of game. European hockey and American hockey are like two different things.
“It’s more of a simple game in the U.S. Back in Sweden, hockey is more skating and more thinking, basically. Here in the U.S., you play more simple, rim it around, make easy passes, get it deep. In Sweden, you want to hold on to the puck. If you have a clear pass to the (offensive) zone you make it. Totally different game.”
Badinka paused and smiled.
“The main thing, I would say, is that the American Hockey League is more physical than in Europe,” he said.
Badinka might have been thinking of a few pops he absorbed in the Wolves games. One came during an April 16 road game against the Milwaukee Admirals, Badinka going face first into the glass after a crunching hit by Ozzy Wiesblatt.
But Badinka, who signed a three-year, entry-level contract with Carolina last July, feels he is better suited physically to handle the rough stuff. He’s listed at 6-foot-3 and 183 pounds by the Hurricanes on their camp roster but said that’s outdated and can be misleading.
“I’m way bigger than last year,” he said.
How much bigger?
“Oh, 205 or 210,” he said, grinning again.
That was one of the benefits, Badinka said, of staying in Sweden for the 2024-25 season. The Czechia native, 19, played in 49 regular-season games for the Malmo Redhawks and another eight in the playoffs.
Badinka said he’s not sure why the decision was made for him to remain in Europe last season but added. “It’s less games there, so I could hit the gym more and get the weight (up).”
Badinka did that, and believes the extra year in the SHL furthered his development. The right-shot defenseman again played against older, stronger men, as he would have in the AHL. He worked on all elements of his game, trying to become more of a factor offensively – he had just two goals and three assists in the regular season.
“I think I progressed in everything,” he said.
A year ago, Badinka said he was being told he could be a first-round pick before the NHL draft was held in Las Vegas. He sat through that first night at the Sphere, hour after hour, and it did not happen, although he heard his name called early on the second day when the Canes took him at No. 34 – Carolina’s first pick in the draft after trading down and out of the first round.
Badinka was at the team’s development camp last year, and now has returned for another few days under the watchful eyes of Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour and Peter Harrold, the team’s director of player development.
“I think a lot of guys come in here at 18 years old and they’re kids, still,” Harrold said Monday. “And a year of working out, and a year of playing a professional game and they’re more mature in every sense of the word. They become more confident, more comfortable in their game, in themselves.
“That’s big for them. Confidence is huge.”
Badinka appears more mature, more confident. He should be at the Canes’ preseason camp this year, competing for a roster spot, although odds are he could end up spending a season with the Wolves on the AHL level.
“The system they play, they think I can fit in,” Badinka said.
This story was originally published July 2, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
