Robin Kovacs (born 16 November 1996) is a Swedish 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 hock ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for Lausanne HC of the Swiss

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

(NL). He was drafted 62nd overall by the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

in the

2015 NHL Entry Draft The 2015 NHL Entry Draft was the 53rd NHL Entry Draft. The draft was held on June 26–27, 2015, at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida. The first three selections were Connor McDavid going to the Edmonton Oilers, Jack Eichel going to the Buffa ...

Playing career

He made his

Elitserien Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan. Elitserien leagues at present: * Elitserien (badmint ...

debut playing with

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

during the

2012–13 Elitserien season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

. Kovacs, who is of Hungarian descent, was seen as one of the top twenty international skaters for the

according to the

NHL Central Scouting Bureau The NHL Central Scouting Services (CSS) is a department within the National Hockey League that ranks prospects for the NHL Entry Draft at specific times during the hockey season. Players are ranked based on how well they will translate to the profe ...

. Kovacs played in four games with Rögle BK in the

Swedish Hockey League The Swedish Hockey League (officially SHL; sv, Svenska Hockeyligan) is a professional ice hockey league, and the highest division in the Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, an ...

(SHL) during the 2015–16 season. After being loaned for the majority of the campaign back with AIK, Kovacs signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the

on 18 July 2016. In his first North American season in 2016–17, Kovacs struggled to adapt offensively in playing with the Rangers

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 Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

affiliate, the

Hartford Wolf Pack The Hartford Wolf Pack are a professional ice hockey team based in Hartford, Connecticut. A member of the American Hockey League (AHL), they play their home games at the XL Center. The team was established in 1926 as the Providence Reds. After a ...

. He appeared in 72 of 76 games with the Wolf Pack totalling just 2 goals and 12 points. Having endured a troubling off-season in Sweden (see Personal life), and under performing in at the Rangers 2017 training camp, Kovacs failed to play in a pre-season game as he was amongst the first roster cuts reassigned to Hartford on 19 September 2017. On 1 October 2017, Kovacs was placed on unconditional waivers in order to terminate the remainder of his contract with the Rangers and return to Sweden. On 7 October 2017, he signed a two-year deal with Luleå HF of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). In April 2022 he signed a tree-year contract with Lausanne HC in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Personal life

Kovacs has a neuropsychiatric disability, with

ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inapp ...

and

dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

. He has credited the conditions in helping progress his professional career. Kovacs was found guilty and later fined for reckless driving in a fatal traffic accident involving a friend, in June 2017. He and his partner, retired Swedish national team goaltender Minatsu Murase, have three children – born in October 2018, September 2020, and November 2022.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* 1996 births AIK IF players Hartford Wolf Pack players Lausanne HC players Living people Luleå HF players New York Rangers draft picks Rögle BK players Swedish ice hockey right wingers Ice hockey people from Stockholm {{Sweden-icehockey-player-stub