Roman Čechmánek (; 2 March 1971 – 11 November 2023) was a Czech 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 ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

. He played professionally in the United States, the Czech Republic, and Germany, including 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 ...

with the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team play ...

and

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

from 2000 to 2004. Čechmánek also played for the Czech national team at multiple international tournaments, including seven

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 ...

Playing career

Čechmánek played for

HC Vsetín HC, hc or H/C may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Medicine * Health Canada * Hemicrania continua * Hyperelastosis cutis or hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia Chemistry * Hemocyanin, a metalloprotein abbreviated Hc * ...

in the Czech Republic from 1994 to 2000. He was drafted in the sixth round as the 171st overall pick of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by the

. The Flyers traded veteran

John Vanbiesbrouck John Vanbiesbrouck (born September 4, 1963), nicknamed "the Beezer" and "JVB", is an American professional ice hockey executive and former player. As a goaltender, he was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007. Vanbiesbrouc ...

hoping the newly-opened backup goaltender position would encourage Čechmánek, who had previously rejected offers from other NHL teams to come to North America, to sign a contract, which he did a few weeks after the draft. In his first season with the Flyers, Čechmánek surprised many by capturing the starting job from

Brian Boucher Brian Boucher ( ; born January 2, 1977) is an American former professional ice hockey goaltender who is a game analyst on national TNT games and also Philadelphia Flyers games on NBC Sports Philadelphia. He played 13 seasons in the National Ho ...

and being one of the best goaltenders in the league. In his first season, he played in the

NHL All-Star Game The National Hockey League All-Star Game () is an exhibition ice hockey tournament that is traditionally held during the regular season of the National Hockey League (NHL), with many of the League's star players playing against each other. The ga ...

and finished second in voting for the

Vezina Trophy The Vezina Trophy ( ) is awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender who is "adjudged to be the best at this position". At the end of each season, the thirty-two List of NHL general managers, NHL general managers vote to dete ...

. He had a disappointing playoff, however, including allowing five goals in an 8–0 loss in the final game of the Flyers' first-round series against 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 (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Con ...

. The next season Čechmánek had another good year and played fairly well in the first round of the playoffs. However the Philadelphia offense failed, scoring a record-low number of only two goals in five games against the

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. The Senators compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Di ...

. Čechmánek was publicly annoyed at his teammates' performance and was replaced by Boucher in the series-elimination game 5. The next year he had another superior season, sharing the

William M. Jennings Trophy The William M. Jennings Trophy is an annual National Hockey League (NHL) award given to "the goaltender(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it ... based on regular-season play." From 1946 until ...

with Flyers teammate

Robert Esche Robert L. Esche (born January 22, 1978) is an American former professional ice hockey goaltender who is the current president of the Utica Comets of the American Hockey League (AHL) and the Utica City FC of the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) ...

, and

Martin Brodeur Martin Pierre Brodeur (; born May 6, 1972) is a Canadian–American former professional ice hockey goaltender and current team executive. He played 22 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), 21 of them for the New Jersey Devils, with whom ...

of the

New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The club w ...

. Čechmánek recorded two shutouts in a second round loss to Ottawa but many blamed him for the loss due to the number of soft goals he allowed in the other four games. At the end of the season he was traded to the

for a second-round draft pick. Playing behind a mediocre Kings team, Čechmánek had a disappointing season in 2003–04. He returned to the Czech Republic to play with his old team HC Vsetín during the cancelled

2004–05 NHL season The 2004–05 NHL season would have been the National Hockey League's 88th season of play. The entire 1,230-game schedule, that was set to begin in October, was officially canceled on February 16, 2005, due to an unresolved lockout that began ...

. He split the 2005–06 hockey season between

HC Karlovy Vary HC Energie Karlovy Vary is a professional ice hockey team based in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. They play in the highest-level national league, the Czech Extraliga. The club The history of the ice hockey in Karlovy Vary dates back to the 1932, w ...

and the

Hamburg Freezers The Hamburg Freezers were a professional men's ice hockey club from Hamburg, Germany that played in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. The club announced its withdrawal from the DEL and ceased operations on 24 May 2016 when Anschutz Entertainment Group, ...

. In the beginning of 2007, Čechmánek left

Linköpings HC Linköpings may refer to: *Linköpings ASS, Linköpings Allmänna Simsällskap is a Swedish swim team *Linköpings FC, an association football club *Linköpings FF, premier men's football team *Linköpings HC, Linköpings Hockey Club See also< ...

and was replaced by

Rastislav Staňa Rastislav Staňa (born 10 January 1980) is a Slovak former professional ice hockey goaltender. He played 6 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Washington Capitals during the 2003–04 season. The rest of his career, which lasted f ...

. He then played for

HC Oceláři Třinec HC Oceláři Třinec (''Třinec Steelers'') is a Czech ice hockey team from Třinec who play in the Czech Extraliga, the top tier of Czech ice hockey. Their home arena is the Werk Arena. The team's main sponsors are the local Třinec Iron and S ...

in the

Czech Extraliga The Czech Extraliga () is the highest-level ice hockey league in the Czech Republic. It was created in 1993 following the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia midway through the 1992–93 Czechoslovak Extraliga season (which all Slovak and ...

for three seasons. He retired following the 2008–09 season.

International play

Čechmánek was on the Czech national team at both the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

and

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...

, but did not play any games, instead serving as backup to goaltender

Dominik Hašek Dominik Hašek (, ; born 29 January 1965) is a Czech former ice hockey goaltender who played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), mostly for the Buffalo Sabres. Widely regarded as one of the best goaltenders in history, Hašek also p ...

. Čechmánek won a gold medal in 1998. His other appearances were in the 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2004, and 2007

Personal life and death

Čechmánek was born in Gottwaldov,

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

on 2 March 1971. He died on 12 November 2023, at the age of 52.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honours

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cechmanek, Roman 1971 births 2023 deaths Czech ice hockey goaltenders Czechoslovak ice hockey goaltenders Hamburg Freezers players HC Dukla Jihlava players HC Karlovy Vary players HC Oceláři Třinec players HC Olomouc players Ice hockey people from Zlín Linköping HC players Los Angeles Kings players National Hockey League All-Stars Olympic gold medalists for the Czech Republic Philadelphia Flyers draft picks Philadelphia Flyers players Philadelphia Phantoms players PSG Berani Zlín players SHK Hodonín players VHK Vsetín players William M. Jennings Trophy winners