Martin Špaňhel
Martin Špaňhel ( born July 1, 1977 in Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech ice hockey player, who was last to 2009 at the Frederikshavn White Hawks in the Danish AL-Bank Ligaen under contract.
Career
Martin Špaňhel began his career as a hockey player in his hometown at the HC Zlín, for the first team, he made his debut in the Czech Extraliga during the 1994/95 season. He was then selected in the sixth round in the NHL Entry Draft in 1995 as a total 152 players from the Philadelphia Flyers, for whom he never played, however. Instead, the attacker ran in the Canadian Junior Football League Western Hockey League for the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Moose Jaw Warriors in the 1995/96 season. From 1996 to 2000 he was in his Czech homeland every two years for his former club HC Zlín and HC Plzeň on the ice.
On 30 May 2000 Špaňhel signed as a free agent contract with the newly formed Columbus Blue Jackets, for which he scored two goals in the National Hockey League within two seasons in ten games. Mainly, however, he played for their farm team in Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League. For the 2002/03 season the links Sagittarius joined the reigning Czech champions Sparta Prague HC, which he, however, already at the end of the season left again. After he started the following season with HIFK Helsinki in the Finnish SM- liiga, he finished it at HC Plzeň in the Extraliga.
In the season 2004/ 05 stormed Špaňhel for Lillehammer IK in the Norwegian GET - ligaen. He spent the following season again at HC Sparta Prague, with whom he won the Czech championship for the first time. From 2006 to 2009 played the World Champion of 2000 for the Frederikshavn White Hawks in the Danish AL-Bank Ligaen. Since then he has vertragslos.
Internationally
For Špaňhel Czech Republic took part in the U20 World Youth Championship in 1997, and the World Championship in 2000 in part.
Awards and achievements
- 2000 Gold medal at the World Championships
- 2006 Czech champion with the HC Sparta Prague