Igor Liba
Igor Liba (* November 4, 1960 in Prešov, Czechoslovakia ) is a former Slovak ice hockey player. During his long career, he completed 589 games in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia as well as 39 games in the National Hockey League. The greatest success of his career was winning the silver medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. He was honored with induction into the Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005.
- 2.1 International
Career
Igor Liba began his career in 1970 in his hometown at the ZPA Prešov, for which he was active until 1978, at junior level and the third division of Czechoslovakia. 1978, at the age of 18, he moved to the VSZ Kosice and made his debut for his new club in the first league. In the following three years he played for Košice and established himself in the league. In the season 1981/82 he scored in 44 games 53 points scorer, before transferring for his military service to the army club Dukla Jihlava ASD. With Dukla he was in 1983 and 1984 Czechoslovak champion, he also was elected to the 1984 All-Star team in the league and with the main ice hockey trophy in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the Zlata Hokejka (Golden hockey sticks ), excellent. After these successes, he returned to Kosice.
1988 received Liba basis of merit given permission to play in the non-Communist countries. Already in 1983, the Calgary Flames had the NHL rights to Liba secured, they issued in May 1988 in a barter trade to the Minnesota North Stars. In October 1988, the North Stars gave off the rights to Liba to the New York Rangers, who received it, among others, Brian Lawton. Liba completed ten NHL games for the Rangers, where he reached seven points scorer before he was sent to the Los Angeles Kings. In exchange for Liba Rangers defender Dean Kennedy received. In the following 29 games of the season the Slovaks get to the side of Wayne Gretzky 18 points scorer before he decided to return to Czechoslovakia.
In the following years he stood for both the VSZ Kosice, as well as clubs in Western Europe on the ice. These included the EHC Biel, the HC Fiemme Cavalese and TuTo Turku. In 1993 he moved to Austria to EV Zeltweg, for which he completed three seasons. Further stations were HK VTJ Ves, the HK VTJ Trebišov, as well as his former club HK Dragon Prešov before 2003 ended his career.
After end of his career he made a coaching license and worked as a youth coach at HC Košice.
Internationally
Liba was for many years a regular member of the Czechoslovakian national team and won with this one gold, two silver and two bronze medals at the World Championships. He also won the 1984 Olympic silver medal and a bronze medal in 1992. Overall, he completed 211 caps for the Czechoslovakia, in which he scored 66 goals. In addition, he ran on in an international match for Slovakia.