| Pavol Demitra (November 29, 1974 -- September 7, 2011) was a Slovak professional ice hockey player. Demitra was a member of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) when its plane crashed on September 7, 2011. Demitra played sixteen seasons in North America in the National Hockey League (NHL) before joining Lokomotiv in 2010. Demitra joined the NHL in 1993, with the Ottawa Senators, with whom he was originally drafted. He also played for the St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks. Before he joined the NHL, Demitra played in his native Slovakia, as well as the American Hockey League (AHL) and International Hockey League (IHL), minor professional leagues in North America. In Demitra's NHL career, he has achieved the 300-goal mark and won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship in 2000. Internationally, Demitra won a bronze medal for Czechoslovakia at the 1993 World Junior Championships. After the country split in 1993, Demitra began competing for Slovakia, with whom he won a second bronze medal at the 2003 World Championships and participated at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, while leading the tournament in scoring. In 2011, Pavol Demitra announced his retirement from representation career. His last representation match for Slovakia took place on May 9, 2011, during 2011 World Championships. Demitra is widely considered one of the best draft steals in NHL history. song by (pouzita skladba) Gary Jules - Mad world |
