Ivan Hlinka

Ivan Hlinka is considered a legendary figure in Czechoslovakian ice hockey, both as a player and a coach. He was a center who began playing with CHZ Litvínov in 1966, and played with them through 1981, except for part of the 1978 season with Dukla Trenčín. In a special Czechoslovakian NHL Entry Draft in 1981, Hlinka was chosen by the Winnipeg Jets but was traded to the Vancouver Canucks and played the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons in North America with the Canucks. Returning to Europe he then played two seasons in Switzerland with EV Zug before retiring due to back problems, although it was a transient retirement. He came back in 1986-87 to serve as a player-coach with Litvinov.

Internationally, Hlinka played in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, winning Olympic silver in 1972. He also played on 11 World Championships teams for Czechoslovakia from 1970-81, missing only the 1980 Worlds, and winning a medal at each participation. He won World golds in 1972, 1976 and 1977, silvers in 1971, 1974-75, and 1978-79, and bronzes in 1970, 1973, and 1981. In addition he helped Czechoslovakia to a runner-up finish at the 1976 Canada Cup. In all he was capped 256 times for Czechoslovakia, scoring 132 international goals.

After his playing career ended, Hlinka became a coach, started with his CHZ Litvínov club, coming back as a player in 1986-87 to help the team as a player-coach. At the club level he later coached EHC Freiburg in Germany from 1989-90, Spartak Omsk in Russia in 2002-04, and in 2000-01 he spent one season as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL, only the second European to be a head coach in the NHL.

Hlinka served as head coach of the Czechoslovakian national team from 1991-93 and of the Czech Republic national team from 1993-94 and 1997-2000, leading the Czech Republic to gold medals at the 1998 Winter Olympics and 1999 Worlds. Hlinka was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame as a player in 2002, and in early 2004 was named a legend of Czech ice hockey. He was set to return as Czech national coach in 2004 but was tragically killed in a car accident in August of that year, when a truck hit his car near Karlovy Vary.