Rostislav Klesla
Rostislav Klesla ( born March 21, 1982 in Nový Jičín, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech ice hockey player who is since March 2014 at the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League under contract and playing for the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League.
- 3.1 International
Career
Klesla played in his youth in his native with the juniors of HC Slezan Opava. In the summer of 1998, at the age of 16, he moved to North America, where it ran aground in the United States Hockey League with the Sioux City Musketeers and in the Ontario Hockey League with the Brampton Battalion. During his time in Brampton, he was selected in the NHL Entry Draft in 2000 in the first round in fourth position of the Columbus Blue Jackets and was thus the first-ever they drafted by the Blue Jackets players.
At the beginning of the season 2000/ 01 Czech-born were already made his debut in the NHL, but was sent after the end of the first month back in the OHL game. From the season 2001/ 02 he finally became a permanent squad of the team from the U.S. state of Ohio.
During the lockout the NHL season 2004/ 05 he played with the Czech clubs Vsetínská hokejová and HC Nový Jicín and the Finnish club HPK Hämeenlinna.
In mid-April 2006, the team announced that the Treaty of Klesla was extended ahead by four years. On 23 September 2006 Klesla has been blocked after a body check in a preseason game against Tuomo Ruutu of the Chicago Black Hawks for two games. Ruutu injured his knee so badly that he could deny only 15 games in the season 2005/ 06. After the departure of David Výborný from Columbus in the summer of 2008, Klesla was the last remaining player who was already in receiving the Blue Jackets in the NHL in 2000 as a team.
On 28 August 2011, shortly before the trade deadline, the Blue Jackets traded it along with Dane Byers Scottie Upshall and Sami Lepisto against the Phoenix Coyotes. In November 2013, the Coyotes him sat on the waiver in order to then transfer it to their AHL farm team, the Portland Pirates.
On March 4, 2014 a day before the Trade Deadline, Klesla was delivered in a swap deal that brought Martin Erat to Phoenix, to the Washington Capitals. However, these transferred him already on the following day, together with Michal Neuvirth in exchange for Jaroslav Halák and a third-round choice in 2015 right to the Buffalo Sabres.
Awards and achievements
- 2000 CHL Top Prospects Game
- 2000 CHL Top Draft Prospect Award
- 2001 OHL First All -Star Team
- 2002 NHL Young Stars Game
- 2002 NHL All- Rookie Team
- 2003 NHL Young Stars Game
Internationally
- 2001 Gold medal at the World Youth Championship
- 2001 Best defender of the World Youth Championship
- 2001 All- Star Team of the World Youth Championship
Career Stats
Internationally
( 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 )