Tomáš Kaberle, Martin Škoula, Roman Turek and Jiří Herink were inducted into the Czech Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in a ceremony held at Prague’s O2 Arena before the national team’s game against Finland (18:00), which marked the start of the Swiss Games, the second tournament of the Euro Hockey Tour this season. Kaberle, Škoula, who both live abroad, were not able to attend the ceremony in person.
Forty-five-year-old former defenseman Kaberle spent the majority of his career in the NHL, where he played for many years in Toronto. In 2011, he won the Stanley Cup with Boston and also played for Carolina and Montreal. He finished his career playing for Kladno and Brno.
Kaberle has a complete collection of medals with the national team. He won the World Championship in 2005 in Vienna, bronze at the Olympic Games in Turin a year later, and silver at the World Championship in Riga. Tomáš Kaberle will join his father and brother František in the Czech Ice Hockey Hall of Fame.
The 47-year-old former forward Škoula played 1017 games in the NHL and won the Stanley Cup twice. First in 2000 with New Jersey and then nine years later with Pittsburgh. He reached the finals four times but was unsuccessful. He also played for Anaheim, New York Rangers, Edmonton, and Minnesota. He won gold with the national team at the World Championships in 1999 and 2005, and bronze at the World Championship in 1998.
The 35-year-old Turk played a significant role as a goalkeeper in winning gold at the World Championship in Vienna in 1996, which was the first in the history of the independent Czech national team. Three years earlier, he won bronze at the World Championship. In 1999, he won the Stanley Cup with Dallas and also played for Calgary, St. Louis, and České Budějovice. He was also a winner of the Golden Hockey Stick in 1994, the prestigious award for the best Czech hockey player of the year.
The 60-year-old Herink is one of the founders of para ice hockey in the Czech Republic. The highlight of his professional career was the World Championship in Ostrava in 2009, where he served as chairman of the organizing committee.
The Czech Ice Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 2008. Candidates are nominated by a proposal committee. To be inducted into the Hall of Fame, the nomination must be approved by at least two-thirds of its living members. The number of individuals honored in this way has now reached 150.
