Miroslav Šatan (; born 22 October 1974) is a Slovak former professional

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 hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

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, who played 15 seasons in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL), five in the

Tipos Extraliga The Tipos Extraliga (Slovak Extraliga) is the highest-level ice hockey league in Slovakia. From the 2018–19 season to the 2020–21 season, the league included one or two teams from Hungary. In 2009, it was ranked by the IIHF as the fifth stro ...

, and three in the

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...

(KHL).

Playing career

Pre-NHL

In 1991–92, Šatan played for the local HC Topoľčany and did remarkably well, as he scored 30 goals and had 22 assists in just 31 games. He then graduated to the senior division within the same year. When he became 18, he joined

Dukla Trenčín Dukla is a town and an eponymous municipality in southeastern Poland, in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 2,017. The total area of the commune is . Dukla belongs to Lesser Poland, and until the P ...

rather than enter compulsory army service for Slovakia (which stopped in 2006). He played there for the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons.

Edmonton Oilers

Šatan was drafted 111th overall in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft by the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...

. Prior to his entry into the NHL, he played in the Czechoslovak and Slovak leagues and he had scored nine goals in eight games representing

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

at the

1994 Winter Olympic Games The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held fro ...

. In 1994–95, Šatan played a season in the minor leagues, split between four teams including the Oilers' minor league affiliate, the

Cape Breton Oilers The Cape Breton Oilers were a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. The team was the top minor league affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Oilers' organization relocated the team from Hali ...

, and the International Hockey League's

Detroit Vipers The Detroit Vipers were an International Hockey League team. The team was founded in 1994, and played at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Their mascot was a polar bear named Vipe-bear. History Beginning The Vipers were originally formed as the S ...

. While with the Vipers, he scored the winning goal in an exhibition game against

Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...

's Ninety-Niners, an all-star team put together by Gretzky during the

1994–95 NHL lockout The 1994–95 NHL lockout was a lockout that came after a year of National Hockey League (NHL) hockey that was played without a collective bargaining agreement. The lockout was a subject of dispute as the players sought collective bargaining an ...

Buffalo Sabres

After two seasons with the Oilers, Šatan was traded to the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...

in exchange for Craig Millar and

Barrie Moore Barrie Moore (born May 22, 1975) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Selected 220th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, Moore played for the Sabres, Edmonton Oilers and Washington Capitals, playing 39 regul ...

. He would lead the Sabres in scoring on six occasions. During the 2004–05 NHL Lockout, Šatan played for Slovan Bratislava in the

Slovak Extraliga The Tipos Extraliga (Slovak Extraliga) is the highest-level ice hockey league in Slovakia. From the 2018–19 season to the 2020–21 season, the league included one or two teams from Hungary. In 2009, it was ranked by the IIHF as the fifth st ...

. After the lockout, Šatan was not offered a contract by the Sabres.

New York Islanders

Šatan signed as a free agent with the New York Islanders on August 3, 2005. He led the Islanders in goals in the 2005–06 season. His 35 goals during the season were his highest goal-output since the 2001–02 season with the Sabres. Almost half his 35 goals came on the

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(17), also a career personal best. Šatan tied for the team lead in points with 66, shared with captain Alexei Yashin. Also in 2005–06, Šatan went seven for ten (70%) and was third in the NHL in shooting percentage in the shootout. On December 2, 2006, he scored his 300th career goal, against the

Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have playe ...

. Earlier in the season, he had recorded his 300th career assist and his 600th career point. On March 24, 2007, Šatan missed the Islanders' game in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

for personal reasons, ending a streak of having played in 305 consecutive games. It was the fourth longest active streak at the time, and marked the second time in his career that he had played over 250 consecutive games. He had a 256-game streak as a member of the Sabres that ended in November 2002.

Pittsburgh Penguins

On July 3, 2008, Šatan signed a one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins. During the 2008–09 season, Šatan was placed on waivers by Pittsburgh on March 4, 2009, the same day as the

NHL trade deadline In professional sports within the United States and Canada, a trade is a sports league transaction between sports clubs involving the exchange of player rights from one team to another. Though player rights are the primary trading assets, draft p ...

, not long after playing in his 1,000th NHL game. Having not been claimed by another team, Šatan was assigned to the Penguins'

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 ...

(AHL) affiliate, the

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League, and are the AHL affiliates of the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins. They play at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barr ...

. In Wilkes-Barre, Šatan had three goals and nine points in ten games. Various reports credited him with being upbeat and a good influence, especially with the younger players. On April 10, 2009, Šatan was recalled by Pittsburgh and cleared re-entry waivers. He re-established himself with the Penguins in the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs when he played against the

Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, a ...

in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals on April 23. He then played in nine games and won his first ever Stanley Cup as a member of the Penguins. The Penguins did not re-sign Šatan when his contract expired at the end of the season, and he was not signed during the free agency period.

Boston Bruins

On January 2, 2010, Šatan signed a US$700,000 contract with the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

for the remainder of the 2009–10 season. The contract included a no movement clause. He made his Bruins debut against the

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

on January 5, finishing with a +2 plus-minus. He scored his first a goal as a Bruin on January 7 against

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

goaltender Antti Niemi. On April 21, he scored the game-winning goal in double overtime to defeat the Buffalo Sabres and take a 3–1 lead in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. On April 26, Šatan then scored the series-winning goal over the Sabres with 5:11 remaining in the game.

Dynamo Moscow

At the beginning of 2011, Šatan signed with

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

of the

(KHL) until the end of 2010–11 season. The club opted not to renew his contract upon its expiry.

Return to Slovan Bratislava and retirement

On September 8, 2011, Šatan moved to the

to rejoin former club Slovan Bratislava. In 2012–13, Slovan moved from the Slovak Extraliga to the KHL and named Šatan team captain. He was badly injured by his former Boston Bruins teammate

Zdeno Chára Zdeno Chára (; born 18 March 1977) is a Slovak former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played 24 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins, and Washington Capitals between 1997 a ...

in a match against Lev Praha on 3 November 2012. Subsequently, Šatan said he did not know if he would play another hockey match in his life. Šatan would return to play in the

2013 IIHF World Championship The 2013 IIHF World Championship was the 77th event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), held in Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland, between 3–19 May 2013. TV4 and MTV3 served as host broadcasters of the event. The ...

. Šatan announced his retirement from professional ice hockey on May 20, 2014, at age 39.

Post-playing career

In September 2015, Šatan was appointed general manager for

Team Europe Team Europe may refer to a number of sports team using the designate to represent a unified team of European countries in sporting competitions. Whilst neither the European Union nor the Council of Europe are countries themselves, European teams ...

to compete in the 2016 World Cup. Team Europe finished second in the tournament after losing the final series to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. In June 2019, he was elected President of the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation.

International play

Šatan captained the Slovak national team to gold, silver, and bronze in multiple world championships: *

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

–

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, 2002, 2006, 2010 *

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

–

(Pool C – gold medal),

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

(Pool B – gold medal), 1996,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

(as a captain won silver medal), 2002 (as a captain won gold medal), 2003 (as a captain won bronze medal), 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

(silver medal),

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

World Cup of Hockey The World Cup of Hockey is an international ice hockey tournament. Inaugurated in 1996, it is the successor to the Canada Cup, which was held every 3 to 5 years from 1976 to 1991 and was the first international hockey championship to allow natio ...

– 1996, 2004 * Team Slovakia – 180 caps / 86 goals

Personal life

Šatan grew up in

Topoľčany Topoľčany (; sk, Veľké Topoľčany before 1920; hu, Nagytapolcsány) is a town in the Nitra Region of Slovakia. The population is around 25,000 in total. The town's population is nicknamed ''Žochári'' (singl. ''Žochár'') (producers, or ...

, Slovakia. He married his long-time girlfriend Ingrid in 2004. They have a son, Miroslav Jr., born in March 2006 and a daughter, Viktoria, born in July 2009. He lives in

Jericho, New York Jericho is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, New York, United States, on the North Shore of Long Island, approximately 29 miles (47 km) east of Midtown Manhattan. Its population was 13,567 as of the U.S. 2010 Cen ...

. Because Šatan's name is a heteronym of Satan, many devil-related jokes have been made at his expense. During his career, many sports-data sites (including

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

, ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'',

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

and

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

) used the number

666 666 may refer to: * 666 (number) * 666 BC, a year * AD 666, a year * The number of the beast, a reference in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament Places * 666 Desdemona, a minor planet in the asteroid belt * U.S. Route 666, an America ...

in the URL of Šatan's page. A popular

April Fool's April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may b ...

joke had Šatan traded to the New Jersey Devils and been made captain of his new team, making Šatan the "leader" of the Devils. After Šatan announced his retirement in 2014, the Yahoo headline read: "Satan be gone!"

Awards and honors

*Champion of

and

. *Played in

NHL All-Star Game The National Hockey League All-Star Game (french: Match des Étoiles de la Ligue Nationale de Hockey, links=no) is an exhibition ice hockey game that is traditionally held during the regular season of the National Hockey League (NHL), with many o ...

–

, 2003 * Stanley Cup champion –

in 2009. *Played in KHL All-Star Game –

*Introduced into the IIHF All-Time Slovakia Team - 2020 *Captain of the Winning Team (Slovakia) - IIHF World Championship 2002

Records

*Led Buffalo Sabres in points six times; *Tenth place on Buffalo Sabres all-time scoring list with 224 goals and 232 assists (seventh in goals scored).

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

*
Sports Illustrated Player profile

Miroslav Šatan´s hockey cards gallery
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Satan, Miroslav 1974 births Living people People from Topoľčany Boston Bruins players Buffalo Sabres captains Buffalo Sabres players Cape Breton Oilers players Czechoslovak ice hockey right wingers Slovak ice hockey right wingers Detroit Falcons (CoHL) players Detroit Vipers players Edmonton Oilers draft picks Edmonton Oilers players HK Dukla Trenčín players HC Slovan Bratislava players Ice hockey players at the 1994 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics IIHF Hall of Fame inductees National Hockey League All-Stars New York Islanders players Olympic ice hockey players of Slovakia Pittsburgh Penguins players San Diego Gulls (IHL) players Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Russia Slovak expatriate sportspeople in the United States Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Canada Stanley Cup champions Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins players