At midnight on Sunday, the Czech hockey transfer market shut its doors for the next few months, as it does every January 31st. What does it mean for Sparta? What changes has our club made over the past several months? Find out below in this article.
After the start of the regular season in September, Sparta made several moves on the hockey transfer market. Experienced forward Vladimír Sobotka was the first to join the squad in mid-November, followed by the return of defenseman Adam Polášek the next month. Both have become key pieces of our club´s offense and defense, respectively. At the time of writing, the former has 4 goals and 21 assists under his belt in just 27 games played, while the latter has the seventh-highest average time on ice out of all 31 players who have worn a Sparta uniform over the course of this season.
Another big signing came on December 29th, when Alexander Salák agreed to an end-of-season deal. The seasoned goaltender, who has appeared in 2 NHL, 69 AHL and 230 KHL games over the course of his long professional hockey career, provided a boost to an already solid net-minding tandem composed of Matěj Machovský and Jakub Neužil. Thus far, he has only appeared in two games for Sparta, recording a save percentage of .861.
Just before the transfer market shut down on Sunday, our team made one final signing. Veteran defenseman, 2010 world champion and three-time Extraliga champion Ondřej Němec arrived in Prague after leaving Kometa Brno. The 36-year-old played his first match in the maroon-and-black uniform last Friday against Plzeň, and got his first point, a secondary assist on a goal by David Tomášek, two days later.
Finally, Miroslav Forman returned to our club from his short stint in České Budějovice. The 30-year-old forward was loaned to Motor in early December and will now once again be available to coaches Miroslav Hořava and Josef Jandač, after he recorded 7 goals and 8 assists in 18 games for the south Bohemian club.
