Jiří Bubla

Jiří Bubla was one of the first Czechoslovakian players to come to North American and play in the National Hockey League (NHL). His early career was spent with CHZ Litvínov and HC Dukla Jihlava, playing mostly with Litvinov from 1967-80. In 1980 he moved to ČKD Praha and played two seasons with that club. He was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in 1981 in a special Czechoslovakian Entry Draft, but was traded to the Vancouver Canucks. Bubla played four seasons with the Canucks, appearing in 256 NHL games, and scoring 118 points, retiring after the 1985-86 season.

Bubla had a sparkling international career. He played for Czechoslovakia at the 1976 and 1980 Winter Olympics, winning a silver medal in 1976. He was on World Championships teams in 1971-79, winning a medal every year – gold medals in 1972, 1976 and 1977; silver medals in 1971, 1974-75 and 1978-79; and a bronze medal in 1973. He was selected to the World Championship all-star team in 1978 and 1979, and in 1979 was voted the best defenseman of the tournament. He also helped Czechoslovakia to a runner-up finish at the 1976 Canada Cup.

After his playing career, Bubla became a European scout for the Canucks. But in April 1987, at the World Championships in Vienna, he was arrested and was later convicted of smuggling four kilograms of heroin out of Pakistan and into Canada via Austria, while he had been playing for the Canucks, and he served a five-year prison sentence in Austria for his involvement in an international heroin smuggling ring. Bubla later settled in Vancouver where he ran a café and a truck shipping business. He is the father of Jiří Slegr, but the two are estranged, and after Bubla and Slegr’s mother divorced, Slegr took his stepfather’s name.