Levente Szuper (born June 11, 1980) is a Hungarian former professional ice hockey

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

. He was drafted 116th overall by the

Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference, and ...

in the

2000 NHL Entry Draft The 2000 NHL Entry Draft was the 38th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 24 and 25, 2000 at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, following the 2000 NHL Expansion Draft on June 23 for the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild. T ...

. He was the number one goalie of the Hungarian team which won promotion to the 2009 World championship. He is currently the general manager of Schiller-Vasas HC of the Erste Liga.

Career

Early years

Szuper began playing hockey in Hungary at an early age, but also showed a flair for the arts. He became an accomplished actor and pianist, but it was between the pipes that he began to achieve prominence. He starred with

Ferencvárosi TC Ferencvárosi Torna Club, known as Ferencváros (), Fradi, or simply FTC, is a professional football club based in Ferencváros, Budapest, Hungary, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top flight of Hungarian football. Ferencváros ...

as a 16-year-old and led the team to its last domestic title so far. He moved on to the junior team of the

Krefeld Pinguine The Krefeld Pinguine (Krefeld Penguins) are an ice hockey team in the DEL2. Their home ice is in Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany at the König Palast. Founded first in 1936 by Willi Münstermann, the pro team became a limited liabil ...

for the 1997–98 season, and had a stellar performance in the 1998 Pool C World Championships.

Moving to North America

Despite his success in Europe, Szuper was pretty unknown when he broke into the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overa ...

in 1998 with the

Ottawa 67s The Ottawa 67's are a major junior ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, that plays in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Established during Canada's centennial year of 1967 and named in honour of this, the 67's currently play their ...

. But over the course of the 1998–99 season, Szuper excelled in the net, although he split his time there with Seamus Kotyk. The 67s advanced to the

1999 Memorial Cup The 1999 Memorial Cup took place from May 15–23 at the Ottawa Civic Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was the 81st annual Memorial Cup competition and determined the major junior ice hockey champion of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). P ...

as the host team, then defeated the

Belleville Bulls The Belleville Bulls were a junior ice hockey team, founded in 1981 and based in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. The team played in the Eastern Division of the Eastern Conference of the Ontario Hockey League. The team moved to Hamilton, Ontario ...

in the semifinals to advance to the Memorial Cup championship against the

Calgary Hitmen The Calgary Hitmen are a major junior ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Hitmen play in the Central Division of the Western Hockey League (WHL). They play their home games at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Bret "The Hitman" ...

. Ottawa prevailed 7–6 in overtime, and Szuper won the F. W. "Dinty" Moore Trophy as the best rookie goalie of the year. Szuper wasn't picked in the

1999 NHL Entry Draft The 1999 NHL Entry Draft was the 37th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 26 at the FleetCenter in Boston. According to ''Sports Illustrated'' and other sports news agencies, at the time the 1999 draft was considered one of the deepest in talen ...

, so he returned to Ottawa and continued to star. He was then drafted by the

in the

in the 4th round (#116 overall). Szuper would play the next three seasons with the

Saint John Flames The Saint John Flames were a Canadian ice hockey team in the American Hockey League from 1993 to 2003 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The Calgary Flames bought and relocated the Utica Devils, to be their AHL affiliate. History The Saint J ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

, earning a

Calder Cup The Calder Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the playoff champions of the American Hockey League. It was first presented in 1937 to the Syracuse Stars. The cup is made of sterling silver mounted on a base of Brazilian mahogany. In its cur ...

championship for the 2000–01 season. During the 2002–03 season, Szuper was called up to the NHL with Calgary due to an injury of starting netminder

Roman Turek Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

. Szuper dressed for 9 games as the backup for

Jamie McLennan Jamie McLennan (born June 30, 1971) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who is now an analyst for TSN, TSN Radio 1050, NBC Sports and NHL Network. He spent eleven seasons in the National Hockey League with the New York Isl ...

, but never played. He is the first Hungarian native to appear on an active NHL roster for a game, but does not appear in the NHL register since he wasn't given any icetime. After failing to stay with Calgary after the 2002–03 season, Szuper was picked by the

St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...

and played in the 2003–04 season in their

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

affiliate, the

Peoria Rivermen Peoria Rivermen is the name of four minor league hockey clubs: *Peoria Rivermen (IHL), named as such 1984–1996, formerly the Peoria Prancers 1982–1984 *Peoria Rivermen (ECHL), 1996–2005 *Peoria Rivermen (AHL), 2005–2013 *Peoria Rivermen (SP ...

Return to Europe

After the year in Peoria, Szuper tried to find a team in Europe for the lockout season of 2004. He had a trial with the

Eisbären Berlin Eisbären Berlin (; English: ''Berlin Polar Bears'') is a professional ice hockey team based in Berlin, Germany. The team competes in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the highest level of play in professional German ice hockey, and is also o ...

, but suffered an injury which demolished his chances of getting a contract. He played for Dunaújváros in the

Hungarian league Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the assignm ...

and then signed for Asiago HC of the Italian Serie A for the 2005-06 season. Having played most of the next campaign with the

Füchse Duisburg The ''Füchse Duisburg'' are a German ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called h ...

of the

DEL Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...

, Szuper was signed by

Malmö Redhawks The IF Malmö Redhawks (colloquially referred to simply as Malmö or by past abbreviation MIF) is a Swedish professional ice hockey team based in Malmö which plays in the SHL, with Malmö Arena as the venue for home games. The history of the ...

for the 2007

Kvalserien Kvalserien, also known as ''Kvalserien till SHL'', was the Swedish round-robin ice hockey tournament to qualify for play in the next season of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL, previously named Elitserien), Sweden's top-level ice hockey league fo ...

(the relegation-round playoffs of the Swedish Elitserien). In the autumn he returned to Italy, this time with the

Milano Vipers Hockey Club Junior Milano Vipers was an Italian professional ice hockey team from Milan. Founded in 1998 as Hockey Club Junior Milano, was renamed Vipers in 2000. In June 2008 the organization was disbanded and replaced with Hockey Milano Rossoblu ...

. After the success of the national team in the 2008 Division I tournament in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous cit ...

he signed with

Alba Volán Székesfehérvár ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kingdom ...

, the most successful Hungarian team in recent times, which competes in the Austrian premier division. On June 29 he announced his move back to the DEL with the

Hannover Scorpions The Hannover Scorpions are a professional ice hockey team, which plays in the Oberliga, Germany's third tier ice hockey league. They previously played in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga from 1996 to 2013. History Founded in 1975 as ESC Wedemark, the ...

Second stint playing in North America

On November 4, 2010, Szuper signed with the

Arizona Sundogs The Arizona Sundogs were a minor league professional ice hockey team based in Prescott Valley, Arizona. They played in the Central Hockey League from 2006 to 2014 with their home games at Tim's Toyota Center. History The team name, Sundogs, re ...

of the American

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

. In his first season with the club, he set franchise records in games played (41), minutes (2,342), saves (1,240) and wins (18). In the following year Szuper was traded to the

Missouri Mavericks The Kansas City Mavericks are an ice hockey team in the ECHL. Founded in 2009 as the Missouri Mavericks of the Central Hockey League, CHL, the team plays in Independence, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, at the Cable Dahmer Arena. H ...

in exchange for Steve Kaunisto and Nathan O'Nabigon.

Szuper leaves Mavericks to play in Kazakhstan

On January 13, 2012, after playing only one game for the Mavericks, Szuper left the team to sign with the Kazakh team

Arystan Temirtau Arystan Hockey Club ( kk, «Арыстан» хоккей клубы, ''Arystan hokkeı klýby''), commonly referred to as Arystan Temirtau, was a professional ice hockey team based in Temirtau, Kazakhstan. They were founded in 2010, and played in ...

of the Kazakhstan Senior League on January 15, 2012. Szuper was placed on Team Suspension by the Mavericks.

Personal

Szuper lives in his hometown of Budapest. He likes to spend his spare time with his horses on his ranch just outside the city. As a child, he started acting, and also worked as a well known dubbing actor. Today, after the end of his own hockey career, he works as a co-commentator during the NHL season, the

Stanley Cup playoffs The Stanley Cup playoffs (french: Les séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley) is an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League (NHL) consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series to determine the league champion and the winner ...

, and the World Championships for Hungarian sports channel Aréna4. His family name means "super" in Hungarian; due to this, his helmets usually include a modified

Superman logo Superman shield, also known as the Superman logo or the Superman symbol, is the iconic emblem for the fictional DC Comics superhero Superman. As a representation of one of the first superheroes, it served as a template for character design decad ...

with a letter Z.

References

External links

Official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Szuper, Levente 1980 births Living people Fehérvár AV19 players Arizona Sundogs players Arystan Temirtau players Asiago Hockey 1935 players Calgary Flames draft picks Dunaújvárosi Acélbikák players Ferencvárosi TC (ice hockey) players Füchse Duisburg players Hannover Scorpions players Hungarian ice hockey goaltenders Malmö Redhawks players Memorial Cup winners HC Milano players Missouri Mavericks players Ottawa 67's players Peoria Rivermen (ECHL) players Saint John Flames players Sportspeople from Budapest Worcester IceCats players