Manitoba Moose

Peter Olvecky has plenty of motivation as he joins the Manitoba Moose.

The 24-year-old Slovak made his Moose debut on Friday night after the American Hockey League club acquired him on loan from the Milwaukee Admirals in exchange for veteran centre Marty Murray.

Olvecky played for his home country in the world junior hockey championship in 2004-05 and in the world championship last spring, and has 32 NHL games (31 with the Minnesota Wild and one with the Nashville Predators) on his resume and another 301 AHL games played since coming to North America in 2005-06.

He will be a free agent at season’s end.

While the Predators retain his rights after the loan and would be able to retain him by extending a qualifying offer, that seems unlikely after loaning him to the Moose.

The Vancouver Canucks, the parent team of the Moose, essentially get a free preview and if they like what they see, could probably ink him to a deal in the summer.

“Of course, I want to help the team make the playoffs and after that, we’ll see,” said Olvecky. “It would be nice to win the (Calder) Cup.”

Olvecky isn’t worried about what the future will bring, he just wants to play well for his new club.

“I’m a two-way player,” said Olvecky. “Of course, I like to put up offence, but I think I can play defence, too.”

Olvecky was drafted by the Wild in the third round (78th overall) in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft and spent much of the first four years of his pro career with the Aeros.

After the Wild failed to tender a qualifying offer, Olvecky became an unrestricted free agent and signed a one-year deal with the Predators.

Although Olvecky has already surpassed his career-high for points (his previous high was 33), his goal totals were down (17 is his career high from 2007-08) and he occasionally found himself in Admirals head coach Lane Lambert’s doghouse.

The move to Manitoba should serve as a fresh start.

“I wasn’t really happy in Milwaukee and this is a big opportunity for me right now,” said Olvecky. “I had a pretty good start and I had a game in Nashville where I played about 10 minutes, but I had a bad February and didn’t play a lot (with the Admirals), not much ice time. It’s good to be here. I hear this is one of the best organizations in the league.”

Moose centre Mario Bliznak trains with Olvecky in the summer months and while he was sad to see Murray go, he was excited to have a fellow Slovak come on board for the stretch run.

“He’s a good player,” said Bliznak. “He’s really good defensively and he’s got a big body. He’s really strong on the puck and he never loses the puck in the corners.”

The Moose and IceHogs play the fourth and final game of their season series on Saturday at the MTS Centre.