HC Pardubice - Modern History

Modern History

At the beginning of season 1991/1992 the club changed its name to HC Pardubice. HC Pardubice entered the first Czech competition (1993/1994) as a strong team with both experienced and young players. This was especially true about the goalkeeper Radovan Biegl who became the best goalkeeper in the league and about the offensive player Richard Král who became the best offensive player of the whole competition with 43 goals. With very good performance presented himself 18years old Milan Hejduk who was announced to be the best beginner. The second place for Pardubice helped to win coach Marek Sýkora who was afterwards announced to be the best coach of the season even though he wasn’t local in Pardubice which wasn’t typical at all as till that time all the coaches came from Pardubice.

However, after the second place the team went down to the bottom of the result table and as a result the team had to defend their place in Extra League in 1996. HC Pardubice gradually left Král, Biegl and other players who had to be replaced by juniors. Among the juniors appeared also offensive player Petr Sýkora. Milan Hejduk became the Olympic champion at Nagano in 1998 and after that he left for NHL.

In the following season the team got a new young coach Miloš Říha and Pardubice started to improve their performance. In season 1996/1997 Pardubice reached 4th place. Even though there were no medals the individual players were successful, for example Petr Sýkora became the best offensive player with 26 goals in 2001.

In 2001 there was a significant reconstruction of the winter sports stadium; it also changed its name to Duhová Aréna. In the following two seasons were successful local juniors who managed to get two championship titles. Nevertheless Pardubice A team couldn’t get over the first round of play off.

Pardubice nearly reached the title in season 2003/2004 when after 9 years the team was playing in the final again. In this final Pardubice fought against HC Slavia Praha which eventually won the final and got its first Extra League Title. And so Pardubice had to wait for its 4th championship title until 2005. They won the championship under the leadership of captain Jiří Dopita and after the arrival of Slovakian goalkeeper Ján Lašák. Thanks to the cancelled season in NHL to Pardubice came the offensive tri consisting of Jan Bulis, Michal Mikeska and Milan Hejduk, who were on the top three places in Canadian table of results. The title of the best play off player received Aleš Hemský. In the final Pardubice team was the front- runner and so after 16 years the title returned to Pardubice the city of gingerbread.

During the existence of hockey club there appeared many famous names that are now in the Hall of Fame in Pardubice. The most famous names are: Josef Paleček, Vladimír Martinec, Bohuslav Šťastný, Otakar Janecký, Jiří Šejba, František Musil, Michal Sýkora, Ladislav Lubina,Aleš Hemský, Milan Hejduk and Dominik Hašek.