Kelowna Rockets fans are going to love this guy.

Vojtech Cihar will join the Rockets this week after an impressive tournament for Czechia at the 2026 World Junior Championship in Minnesota.

The 18-year-old finished fourth in tournament scoring with four goals and eight assists. Those 12 points only trailed the Canadian trio of Michael Hage, Gavin McKenna and Zayne Parekh.

He and his Czech teammates fell short in the gold medal game against Sweden, but Cihar was still named most valuable player of the tournament.

Photo Credit: IIHFVojtech Cihar accepts his tournament MVP trophy.

Cihar is the first Rocket to receive that honour and joins an impressive list of former winners that includes Evgeni Malkin, John Tavares, Patrice Bergeron, Connor Bedard and Ryan Leonard.

The second-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in the 2025 NHL draft was also named a tournament all-star by the media.

Other all-stars this year were Cihar’s teammate Tomas Galvas, Canadians Hage and Parekh, and gold medal winners Anton Frondell and Love Harenstam of Sweden.

Despite winning tournament MVP, Cihar did not win best forward as voted on by the IIHF, as the award went to Frondell. Czech blue liner Adam Jiricek won best defenseman and Harenstam was the best goalie.

Cihar’s rights were dealt to Kelowna from the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the Nov. 9 deal that also saw Shane Smith traded to the Rockets.

He has played the first half of the season in his home country of Czechia, but signed a WHL contract with the Rockets on Dec. 11 with the promise of joining the club after the World Juniors.

Cihar, Tomas Poletin and Tij Iginla will all be heading from Minnesota to Kelowna to provide a massive boost to the Memorial Cup host’s lineup for the second half of the season.

Fans can expect the trio to be in the lineup in time for the Rockets' two games in Portland this weekend, but the club says there's a chance they could play Wednesday at home against Tri-City as well.