Pavel Novak: Back To Playing Hockey
Life feels normal again for former Kelowna Rocket forward Pavel Novak. After taking off all of last season following his battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the now 21-year-old has resumed his career playing within the Minnesota Wild’s farm system.
“You learn to just enjoy every single moment,” said Pavel Novak about being able to play hockey once again in a phone interview with kelownarockets.com recently.
In late April of 2022, Novak missed the final two first-round Rockets playoff games with covid. In early May he signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Minnesota Wild. After feeling like he wasn’t getting any better, he consulted with the Wild and they began to investigate why.
“When I was talking with Matt Hendricks, Minnesota’s Assistant Director of Player Development, he recommended that we do the blood work and that’s how we first noticed something else was going on in my body.”
During our call, Novak walked us through his timeline of battling and recovery.
On June 24, 2022, Novak shared that he was stepping away from the game after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“It was tough because I had to do the chemo during in the summer,” said Novak about his treatment in our call. “It’s nothing nice, you don’t feel really well, you’re losing your hair. But it was the best way to handle the cancer. Looking back on it, it’s a good experience for life, because now I know what’s really important for me.”
On October 5, 2022, Novak shared another update, that he had ‘beat the cancer.’ After winning the biggest fight of his life, Novak’s journey to being able to play hockey had begun.
“I talked to my doctor and she said I would prefer for you to take the year off and just heal your body and get back to playing games slowly. It took so much time to get back to being able to play again because you can’t do it in like two to three weeks, it’s nothing like an injury.”
He said that looking back on it, he’s grateful to have been able to spend time with his family while home in Czechia making progress towards being able to play hockey once again.
“It was probably like the start of October last year when I slowly got the green light to work out. So I spent probably two months getting back to my workouts and doing light stuff in the gym, nothing crazy. Then I got the green light in December to start skating. I was doing that until March, I couldn’t play yet though.”
This past July, Novak’s life took another step in the right direction. He attended the Wilds development camp, unable to skate due to a lower-body injury Novak was thankful to be able to be at the camp that he couldn’t the year prior.
In the fall he played in their rookie tournament, dressing in games for the first time in more than a year and a half.
“When I played at their rookie tournament, it’s a lot of skating and these games were just crazy because a lot of young players are trying to have an impact. It was like okay, this is pretty fast and I need to still keep working because it’s not what I’m used to. It was a little shock, but I think with every game I’ve played it’s just getting better and feeling more confident. It makes me feel happy, I finally feel like a hockey player again.”
Invited to the Wilds main camp, he was assigned to their American Hockey League affiliate, the Iowa Wild in Des Moines, Iowa. Later he was re-assigned to their East Coast Hockey affiliate, the Iowa Heartlanders in Coralville, Iowa.
“I played two games in the AHL, I think I played very well, but they told me I needed to get more ice time. I think this was a good decision for me because I’m getting a lot of minutes here. I’m just trying to get my game back and get the confidence back. I feel it’s helping me to just be myself again.”
After recording an assist in his debut, Novak recorded two goals in his second regular-season game with the Heartlanders.
“It does help the confidence to score, especially when you haven’t played a game in a long time. I scored in the preseason, but this is different, this is like a real game. It just made me so happy I’m back and can still do the job that I used to do.”
On October 26, just two games into his season, Novak was recalled to the American Hockey League’s Iowa Wild. Where former Rocket Brett McLean, who spent four seasons with Tacoma/Kelowna from 1994-1998, is the head coach.
We asked Novak what the biggest difference between playing in Iowa versus playing back home or for the Rockets is.
“Back home or in Kelowna, I had my family or my great billets, Thomas and Laura. Now I’m kind of by myself, so I have to cook, do laundry and everything else. I think I’m getting better at cooking, I’ve been making a lot of chicken and pasta right now because everything else is pretty hard. I usually have my mom on Facetime and we talk about cooking and gives me the instructions.”
Novak continues to stay in touch with his billets as well as a few other faces around the organization, including head coach Kris Mallette.
“I played for Kris for two years, he’s a great coach and a great guy off of the ice as well. I don’t want to say we are friends, I don’t know if he would like to hear that, but he’s a great guy and I still stay in contact with him quite a bit.”
During his rookie season in Kelowna, Novak spent most of it as the lone European player on the roster. During the 2021-22 season, he took a young 17-year-old Gabriel Szturc under his wing, helping him adjust to playing in North America. His friend has since become the Rockets first European captain, which he said makes him happy to see.
“I’m really proud of Gabby. It’s really nice to see how he’s grown up, the first year he was a good player but the last two years for you guys, he just makes so much difference on the team and it makes me happy to see how well he’s doing. I just hope he continues the way that he has and gets rewarded for it one day.”
While Novak is eager to return to Kelowna and visit his adoptive city soon, he’s having fun playing hockey once again – something that a year ago seemed so far away.
“It’s kind of different for me right now because I don’t really stress over doing something wrong on the ice, I just keep playing and just have fun.”
