Best Czech Centers All-Time

[Reindl87]

Did Jagr ever play at center? Maybe a few games here and there, or really never?

 

[carjackmalone]

Stan Makita

 

[Michael Farkas]

Did Jagr ever play at center? Maybe a few games here and there, or really never?

Not in the NHL. I believe he played center a tiny bit in the KHL. But not enough to really even register, IIRC...

 

[Gorskyontario]

Stan Makita

Also Slovakian technically.

 

[Gerulaitis]

Stan Makita

Stan Mäkelä

 

[ESH]

So did Havlat as memory serves me right.

Anyway, let's count them as wingers

Oh, I don't recall Havlat playing much center...is that true? I had a Havlat jersey back in the day and don't recall that.

I don’t remember Havlat ever playing center

 

[Gerulaitis]

Surprisingly, Jiri Hrdina is still on zero.

I think he was better than Prospal, Lang or Holik

 

[Overrated]

Surprisingly, Jiri Hrdina is still on zero.

I think he was better than Prospal, Lang or Holik

2 goals in 45 playoff games is not a good look tbh.

 

[ESH]

Surprisingly, Jiri Hrdina is still on zero.

I think he was better than Prospal, Lang or Holik

I don’t really recall Prospal playing at center all that much either

 

[Michael Farkas]

I don’t really recall Prospal playing at center all that much either

He played plenty of center.

 

[ESH]

He played plenty of center.

The only seasons where he took a significant amount of faceoffs were early in his career in Ottawa, and a little bit one season in New York. If you look at his linemates since that’s been tracked he usually played wing alongside a center.

All of his best seasons seem to have come playing on the wing.

 

[Gerulaitis]

2 goals in 45 playoff games is not a good look tbh.

He was getting old then.

Now look at his international resume

 

[HabzSauce]

Turtleneck

 

[Michael Farkas]

All of his best seasons seem to have come playing on the wing.

That may well be true. But in the context of Jagr and Havlat, Vaclav Prospal is as center as it gets by comparison haha

 

[carjackmalone]

Ivan Hlinka

 

[Gerulaitis]

Ivan Hlinka

Good one

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

petr nedved doesn’t look especially out of place with this cohort of 90s/early 2000s guys

 

[Gerulaitis]

petr nedved doesn’t look especially out of place with this cohort of 90s/early 2000s guys

Nedved had his moments .

Actually he represented Canada at the Olympics

 

[Calderon]

Surprisingly unimpressive bunch tbh. Winger depth doesn't seem that much greater (judging by the highest scoring czechs all time on NHL.com, also sorted by PPG) but having Jagr and Pastrnak there makes the winger beat the centers quite convincingly. Seems as though much of the best centers played their careers in the dead puck era, though.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

The only seasons where he took a significant amount of faceoffs were early in his career in Ottawa, and a little bit one season in New York. If you look at his linemates since that’s been tracked he usually played wing alongside a center.

All of his best seasons seem to have come playing on the wing.

prospal and straka both entered the league as centers but found their footing as left wingers, both most famously on the opposite wing of a superstar RW.

but i think both guys kept getting acquired by other teams thinking they could outgrow that role and transition back to center but it never really stuck, so both guys kept moving back to the wing. and weirdly both guys also kept get reacquired by their main team (tampa and pittsburgh, respectively) to fill their old second/third option role.

i believe reichel had the opposite trajectory, starting on LW because he had nieuwendyk, gilmour, and otto all ahead of him, but eventually establishing himself as a fulltime center.

 

[Gerulaitis]

Surprisingly unimpressive bunch tbh. Winger depth doesn't seem that much greater (judging by the highest scoring czechs all time on NHL.com, also sorted by PPG) but having Jagr and Pastrnak there makes the winger beat the centers quite convincingly. Seems as though much of the best centers played their careers in the dead puck era, though.

Slovaks had arguably more impressive centers:

Mikita
Stastny
plus Pasek, Stumpel... Maybe someone else?

 

[Staniowski]

Slovaks had arguably more impressive centers:

Mikita
Stastny
plus Pasek, Stumpel... Maybe someone else?

Golonka.

Mikita's Canadian.

 

[Gerulaitis]

Golonka.

Mikita's Canadian.

I forgot Golonka. Thank you

Mikita was born in Czechoslovakia so I included him. Let's say he is on the best Slovakia- born centers

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Nedved had his moments .

Actually he represented Canada at the Olympics

iirc, nedved’s time with the canada olympic team was because he was holding out and needed a place to play. my memory of it is that as an asylum seeker after defecting, he was eligible to gain canadian citizenship, which he did solely for the purpose of playing for canada. what i’m not sure of, but maybe someone else knows/remembers, is whether as a defector there would have been any issues with playing for the czechs in 1994.

fwiw, he did end up playing for the czech republic over the entire rest of his international career, beginning as early as the 1996 world cup and as recently as the sochi olympics.