Miroslav Zálešák

Miroslav Zálešák ( born January 2, 1980 in Skalica, Czechoslovakia) is a Slovak ice hockey player who plays in the position of right winger for HC Košice in the Slovak Extraliga since February 2011.

  • 2.1 International
  • 3.1 International

Career

Zálešák first went through the youth teams of the MHC Nitra, before he competed in the 1997/98 season at the age of 17 years, his first games in the Slovakian Extraliga for the professional team.

After being selected in the NHL Entry Draft in 1998 in the fourth round at 104th place San Jose Sharks, he changed the course of the 1998/99 season in the Quebec Major Junior Canadian Hockey League, where he ran aground for the Drummondville Voltigeurs. After an outstanding second season with the Voltigeurs with 111 points in only 60 games, he signed at the beginning of the 2000/01 season his first professional contract with the San Jose Sharks. This initially put him in the Kentucky Thoroughblades, her former farm team, with which he, however, a year later moved to Cleveland. Towards the end of the 2002/ 03 Slovakia's then denied his first ten games in the National Hockey League. In his first game with his first shot, he scoring a goal and was able to prepare in the following nine games two more. Also in the season 2003/ 04 he ran twice for the Sharks and also completed in the AHL with the Cleveland Barons his best season with 75 points in 72 games. He led the team for the only time in franchise history in the playoffs.

How many other players returned Zálešák during the 2004/ 05 lockout season back to Europe. In September 2004, he signed a contract with the Slovak first division HK 36 Skalica. Two months later he moved to the Czech Extraliga for HC Chemopetrol Litvinov. There he played up to the end of the season 2004/05.

Thanks to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement ( CBA), a kind of collective agreement, the San Jose Sharks gave him earlier in the season 2005/ 06 a new contract because he blew their budget. So signed the winger as a free agent in August 2005 a contract with the Washington Capitals. Due to a clause that guaranteed him a contract termination, if he would be sent back to the AHL, he was in October 2005 at the Swedish Elitserienklub Södertälje SK hire.

At the beginning of the season 2006/ 07 he moved back to the Czech Republic for HC Ocelari Třinec. From 2008 to 2011, the Slovak played for his former club HK 36 Skalica. In January 2011, he joined the HC Košice, with whom he immediately won the Slovakian champions title at the end of the season. He was top scorer of the main round and elected to the All- Star team the Slovak Extraliga.

Zálešák stops at the Cleveland Barons franchise records for most goals (84 ), most goals in a season (35 ) and most points in a season (75).

Internationally

Zálešák played for the Slovak national team at the U20 World Junior Championships in 1999 and 2000 and at the World Championships in 2006 and 2010.

Awards and achievements

  • 2004 AHL All- Star Classic
  • 2011 Slovakian Champion with HC Kosice
  • 2011 top scorer of the Slovak Extraliga
  • 2011 All- Star team the Slovakian Extraliga

Internationally

Career Stats

Internationally

Represented Slovakia at:

  • U20 Junior World Championship 1999
  • U20 Junior World Championship 2000
  • World Cup 2006
  • World Cup 2010

( Key to Career statistics: Sp or GP = Games Played, T or G = goals scored, V or A = achieved assists; Pts or Pts = scored points scorer, SM or PIM = received penalty minutes, / - = Plus / Minus balance sheet; PP = scored majority gates; SH = scored shorthanded goals, GW = achieved victory gates; Play-downs/Relegation 1 ); 1 Play-downs/Relegation/Kvalserien

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