The NHL is a professional ice hockey league whose clubs include the Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks. Players enter it through the NHL Draft, and the winner of the competition is decided by the playoffs for the Stanley Cup. The most valuable player of the playoffs receives the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Czech names in the league
Many Czech hockey players play in the NHL. David Pastrňák of the Boston Bruins had 833 points in 756 regular-season games after the 2024/25 season, which put him third among Czech players in league history behind Jaromír Jágr (1,921 points) and Patrik Elias (1,025). Ondřej Palát won the Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2020 and 2021. Martin Nečas moved from Carolina to Colorado in the 2024/25 season in a trade that also involved the Chicago Blackhawks and the Carolina Hurricanes.
Goaltender Jakub Dobeš from Ostrava, whom Montreal selected in the fifth round of the draft, 136th overall, received his first call-up to the Canadiens' main team in December 2024. In the 2026 playoffs he won two deciding seventh games for Montreal in the first two rounds, and nhl.com named him an outsider in the race for the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Olympic Games
At the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, NHL players took part for the first time since 2014. The preliminary roster of the Czech national team included, among others, Pastrňák, Nečas, Palát, Radko Gudas and goaltender Lukáš Dostál.
Sources
- nhl.com
- nhl.com — 22 May 2026
- nhl.com
- Česká televize — 27 December 2024