Anze Kopitar is the highest-drafted Slovenian-born player in NHL history, going 11th overall to the Kings in 2005.
The second-highest: 19-year-old Penguins forward prospect Jan Drozg, selected in the fifth round in 2017.
For the second year in a row, Drozg led the World Junior Championship Division-I B tournament in scoring, registering four goals and eight assists in five games. He led Slovenia to an undefeated tournament crowd and a promotion to the Division-I A tournament for next year.
Drozg is used to having a large role on an inexperienced team. Playing in his final QMJHL season this year, he currently leads the lowly Shawinigan Cataractes (8-21-1-2) in points with eight goals and 23 assists in 27 games. Not exactly impressive numbers by QMJHL standards with its high-powered offense, but impressive given his supporting cast.
"It's not easy when you're losing," Drozg told Slovenia's Siol.net of his team's season. "If I were on a better team, I would probably have scored more points."
Penguins director of player development Scott Young said at the Penguins' development camp that the organization has “high hopes” for the “tremendously skilled” Drozg. His biggest strength is his offensive abilities, but he's growing his defensive game, too, by playing on teams that aren't so strong. At 6-feet-2, he has the height, but at 162 pounds, he needs to get stronger.
Kopitar said that he's met Drozg a few times and is familiar with him as a player. For Kopitar, the lone Slovenian player in the NHL, it's exciting to see a young player like Drozg rise above and see such success.
"It's great," Kopitar told me of Drozg's play Saturday morning after the Kings' skate at PPG Paints Arena. "It's a great thing for him and for our hockey to grow a bit. ... I saw that they won, that's really good for him."
Kopitar and Drozg share a lot in common, as the star players on the men's national team and U20 national team respectively. They're expected to play in all game situations and rack up some major ice time. The teams can't afford to have Kopitar or Drozg sitting on the bench for too long.
The Division-I B tournament doesn't track time on ice as a statistic, but from watching Slovenia's game against Hungary this tournament, it seemed as if Drozg played nearly 15 minutes of the first period alone. That, of course, isn't a sustainable pace throughout the game, but Drozg would be heavily utilized early to give Slovenia the start they needed.
"It's a lot of minutes, usually," Kopitar said of his time playing for the national team. "I see a lot of minutes here too, so I'm used to it. But that just goes to show that (Drozg) is one of the leaders and one of the best players on the team. I'm sure he doesn't mind the ice time."
Given that Slovenia's leagues aren't very competitive, top Slovenian players will often leave the country as teenagers to develop their game elsewhere. A popular destination is the Swedish leagues, as Swedish hockey is notable for its strong defensive play. Kopitar made the jump to Sweden at age 17, and spent a year in the junior SuperElit league, and a year in the SHL.
Kopitar said that stop in Sweden was crucial to his development.
"I thought it was huge," Kopitar said. "I really enjoyed my time in Sweden, I developed a lot. I had some good coaches along the way and it helped me a lot."
Drozg also played two years of junior hockey in Sweden, beginning at age 16. When I asked him at Penguins development camp about his Swedish stint, he expressed similar sentiments.
"I left my country to go play in Sweden, to work on especially my defense game,” Drozg told me at the camp. “They want all players to get better defensively. So I went there to work with my defensive side of my game. I play two years there, and I feel better. I feel I did a great job there. I liked it.”
While Kopitar was able to make the leap from Sweden straight to the NHL, Drozg will need some more time to develop his game. He'll spend next season in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and hopefully one day, double the number of Slovenians in the NHL.
