Marek Svatoš

Marek Svatoš began his junior career with HC Kosice before moving to Cranbrook, British Columbia to play with the Kootenay Ice. He was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL in 2001 and first played for them in 2003/04. Svatoš, a winger, played six years with the Avalanche, with one year interspersed with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL). He later played with the Nashville Predators and the Ottawa Senators in the NHL, his final season in the league being 2010/11. His career was injury-laden, and after sitting out a year, he tried to come back to the NHL with the Florida Panthers, only to be released a few days before the season started. He played two final years of high-level hockey back in Slovakia, one with HC Slovan Bratislava of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and then back with HC Kosice, as the circle came back around.

Svatoš’s international career saw him play for Slovakia at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics and the 2010 World Championships. He also played at the World Junior Championships in 2000 and 2002. He and his family settled in Colorado, near Denver, in the United States, but he died very young, at age 34, in November 2016.