Zdeněk Nedvěd

Zdeněk Nedvěd
Born (1975-03-03) March 3, 1975
Lány, Czechoslovakia
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight 180 lb (82 kg; 12 st 12 lb)
Position Right Wing
Shot Left
Cze Ex team
Former teams		 HC Kladno
Toronto Maple Leafs
NHL Draft 123rd overall, 1993
Toronto Maple Leafs
Playing career 1995–2011

Zdeněk Nedvěd (born March 3, 1975) is a professional ice hockey player who played 31 games in the National Hockey League. He played for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Nedvěd is the son of long-time HC Kladno hockey player Zdeněk Nedvěd, who won four Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League titles with the club in the 1970s. His brother, Roman Nedvěd, also played for Kladno between 1986 and 1991.[1]

Nedved scored a dazzling goal on his first NHL shift but never became a regular in the league. He was a fine puck handler with a good wrist shot but he was unable to fight through the close checking of the NHL with regularity. Nedved was a teenage star with Poldi Kladno. His family sent him to North America to play junior and develop his game more completely. Nedved became a fine scorer with the OHL's Sudbury Wolves and was chosen 123rd overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1993. He scored 97 goals his last two years of junior and represented the Czech Republic at the World Junior Championships in 1994 and 1995. During the 1994 tourney played in his homeland, Nedved was among the top scorers while wreaking havoc in the offensive zone with David Výborný.

Nedved played one game for Toronto late in 1994-95 then prepared for the upcoming training camp. He made the 1995-96 edition of the Leafs and scored a goal early in the season opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Nedved's play tailed off over the next month and he was sent down to the St. John's Maple Leafs of the American Hockey League. Eventually his season was ruined by a serious shoulder injury suffered in a mishap during practice. The next year Nedved played 23 games for Toronto but was unable to perform consistently. Nedved played for St. John's then the IHL's Long Beach Ice Dogs before leaving North America in 1998.

He moved back to his homeland where he played for HC Sparta Praha in 1998-1999. He then moved to Finland's SM-liiga and spent 4 seasons with Lukko Rauma. He then spent two seasons in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany with the Kassel Huskies and the Hannover Scorpions before returning to Finland with Kärpät ahead of the 2004–05 seasons. His stay in Finland was short however, and after only four games, Nedved moved to Norway to play the remainder of the season for the Stavanger Oilers.[2]

Nedved then spent two seasons with Anyang Halla in Asia. He moved back to the Czech Extraliga at the age of 32 to play for HC Kladno in 2007.[3] In 2010, he was playing in Slovakia for HKm Zvolen.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Masaryk Zdeněk Nedvěd oslavil pětašedesátiny". denik.cz (in Czech). 19 February 2010. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  2. ↑ "Zdenek Nedved". Stavanger Oilers (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on October 31, 2007. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  3. ↑ "Hokejový útočník Zdeněk Nedvěd se vrací do Kladna". sport.cz (in Czech). 29 May 2007. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
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