Skating for Joy The Kraken Training Center announces four new leaders in exciting and meaningful new roles for developing hockey players and figure skaters at youth and adult levels by Bob Condor / @SeattleKraken / nhl.com/kraken When Martin Hlinka was a four-year-old in Bratislava, Slovakia, his father took him to skate for the first time at one of the two ice rinks in the city. He loved it from first stride. "My dad said it was like I was fish in water," says Hlinka, laughing at the memory. "I pushed him to sign me up for skating and hockey. I was relentless."