Jaroslav Otevřel (born September 16, 1968) is a Czech former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. Otevrel played 16 NHL games with the

San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. The Sharks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Con ...

. In Europe, Otevrel played with his native club AC ZPS Zlin as well as the Slovakian

HK Dukla Trencin Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. Otevrel retired from ice hockey in 1996 after getting paralyzed in a game while representing the Finnish hockey club

Porin Ässät Porin Ässät ry is a sports club based in Pori, Finland. The club's only programs are ice hockey and esports, but it used to have an association football program. Porin Ässät ry operates an ice hockey team in the Finnish Elite League. Porin ...

Career

Otevrel started his ice hockey career at the youth section of HC Zlin. Otevřel was drafted in the seventh round, 133rd overall, by the

in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. He played 16 games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) with the Sharks over two seasons, scoring three goals and four assists. After career in North America, Jaroslav "Jaro" Otevřel joined

Ässät Ässät or Ässä may refer to: *HC Ässät Pori Oy, Finnish sports club **Porin Ässät (men's ice hockey) **Porin Ässät (women's ice hockey) **Porin Ässät (men's football) **PATA (esports) *, Finnish band from Oulu *S Group, Finnish Consumer ...

SM-liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mest ...

. His career ended on February 11, 1996, when he was paralyzed in a game against

JYP Jyväskylä JYP is an ice hockey team playing in the Finnish top division Liiga. They play in Jyväskylä, Finland, at the Synergia-areena, LähiTapiola Areena. History JYP was founded in 1923. First it was the ice hockey section of the sports club ''Jyväsk ...

. He hit the skates of another JYP player slightly, fell and was then accidentally hit in the head by Vitali Karamnov's knee. His cervical spine was damaged, which resulted in him being paralyzed from the neck down. Otevrel's number 89 is retired by the Porin Ässät, but according to his wishes, the number isn't hanging from the rafters of the Isomäki Areena. Otevrel visited an Ässät game again in 1998. He visited the arena again in 2018, 22 years after the last visit, in an Ässät–

HC TPS TPS or Turun Palloseura is an ice hockey team and 10-time champion of SM-liiga and 1-time champion of SM-sarja. They play in Turku, Finland, at Gatorade Center. In terms of championships, TPS is the second all-time most successful team in SM- ...

game.

Personal life

Otevřel lives in his hometown

Zlín Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 75,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice River. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the modern city ...

, Czech Republic, with his wife and daughter.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* 1968 births Living people Porin Ässät (men's ice hockey) players Czech ice hockey left wingers HK Dukla Trenčín players Ice hockey players with retired numbers Kansas City Blades players PSG Berani Zlín players Ice hockey people from Zlín San Jose Sharks draft picks San Jose Sharks players Czechoslovak ice hockey left wingers Czech expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Czech expatriate ice hockey players in Finland {{CzechRepublic-icehockey-winger-stub