Josef Melichar
Josef Melichar ( born January 20, 1979 in České Budějovice, Czechoslovakia ) is a former Czech ice hockey player who played during his career, among other things, for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes in the National Hockey League.
Career
Josef Melichar began his career in the youth of the Czech first division team HC České Budějovice, before he was selected in the third round during the NHL Entry Draft in 1997 as 71 players from the Pittsburgh Penguins. He then played two junior seasons with the Tri -City Americans of the Western Hockey League and in 1998 for the Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy, with the best defender of the league will be awarded, nominated.
His first professional season spent in the Czech game in 1999/2000 when the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the American Hockey League. As the only players on the team, he played in all 80 games of the season. In October 2000, he was the age of 21 his NHL debut, and came into the season 2000 /01 a total of 18 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Most but was used in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and culminated with the team's AHL playoffs, but the final of the Calder Cup was lost.
A serious shoulder injury at the end of the 2001/02 season he was only eight will contest in the following season after persistent problems. After another shoulder injury he traveled in the summer of 2003 in training camp with the rest of the team and then he injured himself in the same place. However, the injury was not that hard, so that he could play in all 82 games of the season 2003/ 04. This season in his 137th NHL game in total, he scored his first goal.
During the failure of the NHL season 2004/ 05 Melichar played for HC Sparta Prague in his Czech homeland and returned in the summer of 2005 back to the Penguins. On 11 March 2006 he was appointed assistant captain for the Penguins. In the 2007 /08 season Melichar was the Swedish first division club Linköpings HC group, but spent the start of the season with his hometown club in České Budějovice, as he so received a tax-advantaged half- year contract in Sweden. With the LHC, 2008 he was a Swedish runner-up.
On 1 July 2008 Melichar has been committed by the Carolina Hurricanes, who submitted it on 7 February 2009, with Wade Brookbank and a fourth- round option for the NHL Entry Draft in 2009 in exchange for the Finns Jussi Jokinen to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In summer 2009, Melichar did not get a new NHL contract and therefore returned back to his home to his original club for which he played in the Extraliga. In July 2010 he received a sample contract with HC Lev Poprad from the Kontinental Hockey League. As this did not take up the game mode, Melichar was initially without a club. On 10 August 2010 he was given a one-year contract with Linköpings HC, but was loaned to mid-October 2010 to the HC České Budějovice. For Linköping, he completed 48 games in the Elitserien, before he was signed in July 2011 by HC Pardubice. In mid-August of the same year he finished his career for family reasons.