Jaroslav Halák

Jaroslav Halák
Born May 13, 1985 (1985-05-13) (age 26)
Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight 183 lb (83 kg; 13 st 1 lb)
Position Goaltender
Catches Left
NHL team
Former teams		 St. Louis Blues
Montreal Canadiens
National team  Slovakia
NHL Draft 271st overall, 2003
Montreal Canadiens
Playing career 2005–present

Jaroslav Halák (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈjaroslav ˈɦalaːk]; born May 13, 1985) is a Slovak professional ice hockey goaltender currently playing for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). Halák was the 271st overall pick by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

Contents

Playing career

Montreal Canadiens

In the midst of a stellar season with the Montreal Canadiens' American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs, Halák was called up to the Canadiens on February 15, 2007, after an injury to Montreal's starting goaltender, Cristobal Huet. At the time of his call-up, Halák had a 2.00 goals against average (GAA) with the Bulldogs, the lowest in the AHL. He played his first NHL game on February 18, 2007, stopping 31 shots in a 3–2 road win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Halák earned his first career NHL shutout on March 20, 2007, making thirty saves to give the Montreal Canadiens a 1–0 victory over the rival Boston Bruins. Halák's great play towards the end of the 2006–07 season helped keep Montreal in a fight for a playoff spot despite the injury to Huet.

Halák was assigned to the Bulldogs for the majority of the 2007–08 season. However, after the Canadiens traded Huet on February 26, 2008, Halák took over full-time as the Canadiens back-up goaltender. He started his first playoff game on April 30, 2008 against the Philadelphia Flyers (a 4–2 loss) after sub-par performances from newly appointed starter Carey Price, who once again took over in the following game.

Halák fulfilled back-up duties for the Canadiens into the 2009-10 season. However, Halák's strong play coupled with inconsistent performances from Price led to an opportunity for Halák to step into a larger role. Ultimately, based on his strong play for the Habs and for Slovakia at the Vancouver Olympics, there was a strong internal push to designate Halák the starting goaltender for the Habs.

Halák went on to be named the Montreal Canadiens' Molson Cup Player of the Year for the 2009-10 season and was designated the starter heading into their first-round playoff match-up against the President's Trophy-winning Washington Capitals. In the sixth game of the series, Halák stopped 53 shots to set a club record for a playoff game (in regulation-time),[1] leading the Canadiens to a 4-1 victory. Ultimately, the Canadiens overcame a 3-1 series deficit to win the series in seven games, marking one of the biggest upsets in NHL history.[2] The win was attributed largely to Halák's play as he turned aside 131 of Washington's 134 shots in games 5 through 7, frustrating the league's top scoring team from the regular season.[3] The Canadiens moved on to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round, and defeated them in seven games as well, marking a second consecutive major upset.[4] Montreal won the decisive game 5-2, and Halák was named the first star.[5] The Canadiens faced the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Final, and their surprising playoff-run came to an end with a 4-1 series loss.[6]

St. Louis Blues

At the conclusion of the 2009-10 season, both Halák and Carey Price became restricted free agents and a great goaltending debate emerged in Montreal over who would remain with the team, playoff-hero Halák, or the younger Price. After weeks of media speculation the Canadiens chose Price and on June 17 controversially traded Halák to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for two prospects, center Lars Eller and right-winger Ian Schultz (brother of Jeff Schultz).[7] On July 6, 2010, Halák signed a four year $15 million dollar contract with the Blues.[8] Prior to the 2010–11 season, Halák held an autograph-signing in Montreal as a farewell and goodwill gesture, to thank fans for their support as well as to raise funds for the Montreal Ste-Justine Children's Hospital. Though 500 fans were expected, more than 5000 fans attended the event held at the Fairview Pointe-Claire mall, testifying to his popularity with Canadiens fans.[9]

Halák played his first game as a Blue on October 9, 2010, earning a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in St. Louis. Halák would collect his first shutout with the Blues on October 23, 2010 at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins, stopping 31 shots in a 1-0 overtime victory. Halák would go on to be named one of the NHL's Stars of the Week.[10] Halak had a quick start in St. Louis going 8-1-1 but since then has been very inconsistent and currently is sharing the number 1 role in St. Louis with Brian Elliott.

International play

Halák has represented Slovakia internationally on numerous occasions. He first played for his country at the IIHF World U20 Championship, starting every game for the team in both the 2004 and 2005 tournaments, where the team finished 6th and 7th, respectively. Halák's first senior international experience came in 2007 as he played in the 2007 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, starting 2 games and earning a 1-1 record. The Slovaks finished in 6th place.[11] Halák again represented Slovakia at the 2009 tournament, where the team finished a disappointing 10th overall.[12]

In February 2010, Halák was named the starting goaltender for the Slovak national team in the 2010 Winter Olympics. He stopped 36 of 37 shots in a preliminary round victory against a strong Russian team, and went on to start every game for the Slovaks. Halák and his teammates finished a surprising 4th overall in the tournament after losing against Finland in the bronze medal match.[13] This was the best finish ever for Slovakia at the Olympics, one spot better than their 5th place finish at the 2006 Olympics.

Playing Style

Halak plays in the hybrid style of play by being able to make saves standing up or in the butterfly stance. Halak made a numerous amount of saves standing up in the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs against the Washington Capitals and against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Career statistics

Regular season

   
Season Team League GP W L T/OT MIN GA SO GAA SV%
2002–03 Bratislava Svk Jr. 9 — — — 477 18 — 2.26 —
2003–04 HC Slovan Bratislava SVK 12 — — — 651 18 0 1.66 .942
2004–05 Lewiston Maineiacs QMJHL 47 24 17 4 2697 125 4 2.78 .913
2005–06 Long Beach Ice Dogs ECHL 20 11 4 2 1026 35 2 2.05 .932
2005–06 Hamilton Bulldogs AHL 13 7 6 0 786 30 3 2.29 .927
2006–07 Hamilton Bulldogs AHL 28 16 11 0 1618 54 6 2.00 .932
2006–07 Montreal Canadiens NHL 16 10 6 0 912 44 2 2.89 .906
2007–08 Hamilton Bulldogs AHL 8 3 2 2 454 22 0 2.91 .901
2007–08 Montreal Canadiens NHL 6 2 1 1 284 10 1 2.11 .934
2008–09 Montreal Canadiens NHL 34 18 14 1 1931 92 1 2.86 .915
2009–10 Montreal Canadiens NHL 45 26 13 5 2630 105 5 2.40 .924
2010–11 St. Louis Blues NHL 57 27 21 7 3294 136 7 2.48 .910
NHL totals 158 83 55 14 9052 387 16 2.57 .916
AHL totals 69 38 27 2 4034 141 11 2.10 .930

Playoffs

   
Season Team League GP W L MIN GA SA SO GAA SV%
2003–04 HC Slovan Bratislava SVK 1 — — 45 6 62 0 8.00 .903
2004–05 Lewiston Maineiacs QMJHL 8 4 4 460 27 292 0 3.52 .908
2005–06 Long Beach Ice Dogs ECHL 4 2 2 252 13 144 0 3.09 .910
2007–08 Montreal Canadiens NHL 2 0 1 77 3 27 0 2.34 .889
2008–09 Montreal Canadiens NHL 1 0 0 20 0 5 0 0.00 1.000
2009–10 Montreal Canadiens NHL 18 9 9 1013 43 562 0 2.55 .923
NHL totals 21 9 10 1110 46 594 0 2.48 .923

International

   
Year Team Event GP W L T MIN GA SO GAA SV%
2004 Slovakia WJC 6 2 3 1 360 14 2 2.33 —
2005 Slovakia WJC 6 4 2 0 360 13 2 2.17 —
2007 Slovakia WC 2 1 1 0 119 5 1 2.52 .904
2009 Slovakia WC 4 1 2 0 189 10 0 3.17 .872
2010 Slovakia Oly 7 3 3 0 423 17 1 2.41 .911
Senior International Totals 13 5 6 0 731 32 2 2.46 .900

See also

References

  1. ^ "Halak comes up huge as Canadiens force game 7". TSN. 2010-04-27. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/story/?id=319591&hubname=nhl-capitals. 
  2. ^ "Montreal Canadiens eliminate Washington Capitals". The Oakland Press. 2010-04-29. http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/04/29/sports/doc4bd8eb0542902794918547.txt. 
  3. ^ "Halak, Canadiens knock Ovechkin, top-seeded Capitals out of postseason". ESPN. 2010-04-28. http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap/_/id/300428023/montreal-canadiens-vs-washington-capitals. 
  4. ^ "Canadiens continue their role as giant-killer". NY Times. 2010-05-12. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/sports/hockey/13penguins.html. 
  5. ^ "Canadiens stun Penguins 5-2 in game 7". NHL. 2010-05-13. http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=2009030217. 
  6. ^ "Philadelphia Flyers defeat Montreal Canadiens to advance to Stanley Cup finals". Washington Post. 2010-05-25. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/24/AR2010052404132.html. 
  7. ^ "Canadiens deal goaltender Halak to Blues". TSN. 2010-06-17. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=324934. 
  8. ^ "Halak signs 4-year, $15 million contract with Blues". TSN. 2010-07-06. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=326742. Retrieved 2010-07-07. 
  9. ^ "Ex Habs goalie Halak draws big crowd for farewell autographs". TSN. 2010-09-04. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=332657. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
  10. ^ "Bourque, Halak and Stamkos named 'Three Stars'". NHL. 2010-10-25. http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=541493. 
  11. ^ "2007 IIHF World Championship". IIHF. http://www.iihf.com/Hydra/Tournaments_07/output/WS/hydra.iihf.com/113/index.html. 
  12. ^ "2009 IIHF World Championship". IIHF. http://www.iihf.com/channels/iihf-world-championship-oc09/home.html. 
  13. ^ "Finland defeats Slovakia to capture hockey bronze". TSN. 2010-02-28. http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=311878. 

External links