Ján Lašák
Ján Lašák ( born April 10, 1979 in Zvolen, Czechoslovakia) is a Slovak professional ice hockey goaltender, who has a contract with HC Dukla Trenčín of the Slovak Extraliga since September 2013.
- 2.1 International
Career
Lašák began his career in the youth teams of HKm Zvolen, for whom he made his debut in the Extraliga in the season 1998/99. During the NHL Entry Draft in 1999, he was selected by the Nashville Predators in the second round at 65th overall and moved a short time later to North America. The Predators first sent him to the East Coast Hockey League to the Hampton Roads Admirals, who acted at that time as a farm team of the NHL clubs. In the 1999/2000 season of the ECHL Lašák excelled and won several awards in the league. Among other things, he was elected Goalkeeper of the Year and Rookie of the Year.
After this success, Ján Lašák moved within the Predators franchise to the Milwaukee Admirals for whom he played until 2003. During this time he came to a total of six missions in the NHL for the Predators, but could not prevail against the other keeper of the franchise itself. Therefore he moved during the 2003/ 04 season for SKA Saint Petersburg in the Russian Super League. In the summer of 2004 he decided to renewed change of club and signed a contract with the Czech first division club HC Moeller Pardubice. In his first season there, he could win with his new team, the Czech championship and was voted player of the year.
From the season 2009/10 stood at Lašák HC Košice under contract and was initially hired in December 2009 for a month at Atlant Mytischtschi from the Kontinental Hockey League. This loan was later extended until the end of the season. In June 2010 Lašák got a new one-year contract with Atlant, which was dissolved in September. As a result, he was unemployed before signed him Jokerit of the Finnish SM- liiga in November of the same year. With Jokerit he reached the playoff quarterfinals in which his team was defeated by eventual champions and local rivals HIFK Helsinki.
In April 2011 Lašák of Amur Khabarovsk of the Kontinental Hockey League was signed. In November 2012, he was released after the signing of Alexei Kuznetsov from his contract and committed by HK Spartak Moscow in January 2013. For Spartak, he completed until end of season 18 KHL games, but left the club after. In September 2013 he received a short-term contract with HC Dukla Trenčín of the Slovak Extraliga.
Internationally
Addition to his success at club level Ján Lašák was also regularly employed in international championships. With the junior selection Slovakia he took part in the U20 World Championships in 1999. A year later he was appointed to the Slovak Mr. selection and came in the World Cup 2000 on the application, where he won the silver medal. In the following years he took part in almost all world championships and was able to win the gold in 2002 and 2003, the bronze medal.
He also came at the Olympic Winter Games in 2002 and 2006 are used. Overall, he has not played 68 international matches for Slovakia.
Awards and achievements
- 2000 ECHL All-Star Game
- 2000 ECHL Goaltender of the Year
- 2000 ECHL Rookie of the Year
- 2000 ECHL First All -Star Team
- 2005 Player of the Year the Extraliga
- Zlatý puk ( Player of the Year in Slovakia ) 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005