Playing Career
Kubina started his professional career with HC Vítkovice of the Czech Extraliga. He played there for four seasons, during which he was drafted in the seventh round of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft by the Lightning.
Later in 1996, he came to Canada to play for the Moose Jaw Warriors of the WHL, and scored 44 points in 61 games. Kubina got his first taste of NHL action in the 1997–98 NHL season, although he spent most of his time playing for the Adirondack Red Wings of the American Hockey League.
He then spent most of the next season in the NHL, tallying a total of 21 points, while playing occasionally in the International Hockey League for the Cleveland Lumberjacks. By the 1999–2000 NHL season Kubina had cemented his position in the Lightning's lineup, and notched 26 points for them.
Kubina had 30 points in the 2000–01 campaign and 34 in 2001–02.
In the 2003–04 season he won the Stanley Cup.
On July 1, 2006, Kubina signed a deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs for four years at $20 million. Kubina was suspended by the NHL for the first game of the 2006–07 season for cross-checking Detroit's Jiří Hudler in a preseason game.
On July 1, 2009, Kubina was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers with the rights to Tim Stapleton for Garnet Exelby and Colin Stuart.
On July 2, 2010, Kubina returned to the Tampa Bay Lightning, signing a two-year contract valued at $7.7 million (roughly $3.85 million per year).
On March 9, 2011, Kubina was suspended three games for an elbow on Chicago Blackhawks forward Dave Bolland.
On February 18, 2012, Kubina was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for Jon Kalinski, a 2012 or 2013 2nd-round draft pick and a 2013 4th-round draft pick. He finished the season with four points in 17 games with the Flyers.
On September 15 2012, Kubina signed with HC Vitkovice in the Czech Extraliga.
Read more about this topic: Pavel Kubina
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or career:
“The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery....Child’s play is the infantile form of the human ability to deal with experience by creating model situations and to master reality by experiment and planning.”
—Erik H. Erikson (20th century)
“Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)