He still had the number 17 on his back, there was only a little fluff on his face, so no typical beard, and the iconic turtleneck was still missing under his jersey. For the 10th round, Kladno headed to Karlovy Vary, which still had its homeland in the local “tin shop”, and it was here, on October 6, 1998, that Tomáš Plekanec (15 years and 340 days) experienced his big premiere.
“At that time, Ota Vejvoda Sr. was coaching and he gave an opportunity to almost every junior who played there. They gradually replaced almost the entire junior team in the lineup,” recalls Plekanec after a quarter of a century.
Příklep with Tomáš PlekanecVideo: Sport.cz
Back then, he got three games in the season, without anyone having any idea what a hockey legend he would one day become. “I wasn’t even in the cabin with A at that time. We changed in the juniors’ locker room and went to the ice from there,” he recalls.
It is funny that the names of the central figures have not changed at all in Kladno. Even now Plekance is coached by Otakar Vejvoda, that is, the son of the coach who brought him to A, the club boss is Jaromír Jágr, just as he was back then, but here too it is now the younger one.
For Plekanec, October 6, 1998 is also the day when his big boyhood wish came true. “I’ve been going to Kladno since I was a kid, and my dream was to play for him in the league one day. Of course, I didn’t see any more, because the NHL wasn’t on TV much at the time, we knew almost nothing about it. And the national team was also far away for me, so I didn’t have any big goals. They came only gradually, it was packed with the draft, junior national teams…”
You know how it ended. Plekanec played 1,001 games in the NHL, played in 11 world championships and two Olympics for the national team. And if his health and decent form hold up, he could see his 2,000th game in the senior category during the next season.
The number 1 is celebrating its 25th anniversary today.
2023-10-06 07:20:35
#beard #turtleneck #Today #years #Plekanec #debuted #extra #league #Sport.cz
