|
View: Previous | Next
|
| 1984 NHL DRAFT PICK |
 |
Michal Pivonka
Selected in
third round
No. 59 overall by Washington Capitals
Born
January 28, 1966
 | Position:
Center
Height: 6-2 Weight: 190
|
|
| BEFORE THE DRAFT |
Last Team:
Jihlava (Czechoslovakia)
Birthplace:
Kladno, Czechoslovakia
Hometown: Kladno, Czech Republic |
 |
 |
|
| PRE-DRAFT
STATISTICS | | Year |
Team | League |
GP | G |
A | TP |
PIM | | 1982-83 |
Jihlava | Czech. Jr. |
-- | -- |
-- | -- |
-- | | 1983-84 |
Jihlava | Czech. Jr. |
-- | -- |
-- | -- |
-- |
|
PRE-DRAFT AWARDS AND HONORS
World Junior Championships:
1984 (bronze medal)
European Junior Championships: 1983 (bronze),
1984 (silver)
European Junior Championships All-Star First Team: 1983 |
| NHL CAREER |
Debut: October 9, 1986 (Washington at
Pittsburgh)
Numbers: 20 (Washington)
Stanley Cup: Never won.
Playing Status:
Retired 2000 |
| CAREER NHL STATISTICS | | Years |
Teams | GP |
G | A |
TP | PIM | | 1986-1999 |
Washington | 825 |
181 | 418 |
599 | 478 |
|
| CAREER NHL PLAYOFF STATISTICS |
| Years | Teams |
GP | G |
A | TP |
PIM | | 1987-1998 |
Washington | 95 |
19 | 36 |
55 | 86 |
|
NHL
AWARDS AND HONORS
Washington Records: Most career assists (418)
Washington Points Leader: 1991-92 (80), 1995-96 (81)
Washington Assists Leader: 1991-92 (57), 1995-96 (65)
Washington Playoffs Points Leader: 1988 (13, tie)
Washington Playoffs
Goals Leader: 1989 (3, tie), 1994 (4, tie),
1996 (3, tie)
1997-98: Played on Washington team that went to 1998 Stanley Cup
Finals. Although he appeared in 13 playoff games, he missed the entire final
series vs. Detroit due to injury.
Miscellaneous: Also played left wing for Washington during
1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons. ... Played on line with Bobby Gould and Gaetan
Duchesne for Washington in 1986-87. ... Missed part of 1986-87 season with strained ligaments in
ankle, an injury suffered while grappling with Steve Kasper during
Washington's March 7, 1987, game at Boston. He did not return to action
until Washington's March 20, 1987, game vs. Pittsburgh. ... Finished third
among all NHL rookies with 15.4 percent shooting percentage in 1986-87. ...
Finished seventh among all NHL rookies with 43 points in 1986-87. ... Missed
part of 1987-88 season with sprained right wrist, an injury suffered in
Washington's Oct. 19, 1987, game at N.Y. Rangers. He did not return to
action until Washington's Oct. 27, 1987, game at Vancouver. ... Missed part
of 1987-88 season with sprained left ankle, an injury suffered during
Washington's March 18, 1988, game vs. N.Y Islanders. He did not return to
action until Washington's March 29, 1988, game vs. Detroit. ... Missed part
of 1989-90 season with sprained left knee, an injury suffered during
Washington's March 9, 1990, game vs. Quebec. He did not return to action
until Washington's March 13, 1990, game vs. St. Louis. ... Tied for
Washington lead with 10 power-play goals and three shorthanded goals in
1989-90. ... Missed part of 1990 playoffs with kidney stone, which sidelined
him after Game 2 of Washington's second-round series at N.Y. Rangers on
April 21, 1990. He did not return to action until Game 2 of Washington's
Wales Conference Finals series at Boston on May 5, 1990. ... Missed part of
1992-93 season with pulled groin, an injury suffered during Washington's
Oct. 10, 1992, game vs. Philadelphia. He did not return to action until he
convinced Capitals coach Terry Murray to let him play in Washington's Oct.
21, 1992, game at N.Y. Rangers. During that game, he re-aggravated the groin
injury, and then did not return to action until Washington's Nov. 20, 1992,
game vs. Detroit. ... Missed part of 1993-94 season with concussion, suffered during Washington's March 25, 1994, game at Detroit. ...
Missed remainder of 1994 playoffs with groin injury, suffered during Game 1
of Washington's second-round series at N.Y. Rangers on May 1, 1994. ...
Played on line with Peter Bondra for Washington in 1995, 1995-96 and 1996-97
seasons. ... Missed remainder of 1995 regular season with leg injury, suffered during
Washington's April 30, 1995, game at Florida. He did not return to action
until Game 1 of Washington's first-round playoff series at Pittsburgh on May
6, 1995. ... Named Washington Player of Month for December 1995. ... Had 65
assists for Washington in 1995-96 -- the second most assists by any Capitals
player in one season (Dennis Maruk had 76 in 1981-82). ... Passed Mike
Gartner to become Washington's all-time assists leader during Capitals' Oct.
19, 1996, game at Pittsburgh. During that game, Pivonka recorded his 393rd
career assist. ... Missed part of 1996-97 season with torn lateral meniscus
in right knee, an injury suffered during Washington's Oct. 26, 1996, game at
St. Louis. He did not return to action until Washington's Dec. 11, 1996,
game at San Jose. ... Missed part of 1996-97 season with the flu, an illness
contracted in March 1997. ... Missed remainder of 1996-97 season with
concussion, suffered during Washington's March 26, 1997, game at Chicago.
... Missed part of 1997-98 season with broken left wrist, suffered in Washington's Oct. 23, 1997, game at Phoenix. Pivonka
thought the wrist was sprained, and he returned for Washington's Nov. 4, 1997, game
vs. Vancouver. On Nov. 11, 1997, after Pivonka continued to experience pain
in the wrist, X-rays revealed it was broken. Pivonka did not return to
action until Washington's Dec. 12, 1997, game at Anaheim.
... Missed part of 1997-98 season with pulled groin, an injury suffered in
Washington's Feb. 7, 1998, game vs. Tampa Bay. He was placed on injured
reserve on Feb. 28, 1998, and did not return to action until
Washington's April 22, 1998, game vs. Boston. ... Missed remainder of 1998
playoffs shoulder injury, suffered during Game 2 of Washington's Eastern
Conference Finals series vs. Buffalo. The injury required off-season
surgery, and he did not return to action until his 1998-99 NHL
regular-season debut in Washington's Dec. 23, 1998, game at Florida. ...
Left Washington in 1999 ranked No. 2 on Washington's career points list
(599), No. 3 on career games played list (825), No. 3 on career playoff
games played list (95) and No. 3 on career playoff points list (55).
Pivonka's Holdout: Pivonka missed
Washington's entire 1995 training camp and the start of the 1995-96 season
due to a contract dispute with the Capitals. Pivonka's agent, Rich Winter,
also represented the Capitals' Peter Bondra, and both players' contracts had
expired after the 1995 season, making them Group II restricted free agents.
Winter was looking to get substantial raises for both of his players, but he
was unable to find any other NHL teams willing to sign them to offer sheets.
Pivonka had earned $836,000 the previous season, and Winter was looking to
take him well over $1 million per year. Early in the summer, Winter
suggested both Bondra and Pivonka would hold out until Washington met his
contract demands. By the time training camp opened in September 1995, it was
clear neither player would be there. Winter and Capitals general manager
David Poile had a sharp disagreement over some requests Winter had made of
the team, and Winter had told Poile there would be no negotiations. By
mid-September, Winter changed his tune, and allowed both Pivonka and Bondra
to attend training camp -- but not to play any exhibition games --- while
negotiations continued. But on Sept. 27, he abruptly pulled them away from
the caps again, signing both to contracts with the IHL's Detroit Vipers. By
sending his players to Detroit, Winter had hoped to gain leverage on the
Caps. The Capitals were offering Pivonka a five-year contract worth $900,000
per season, while Winter was said to be asking for $1.5 million per season.
Pivonka and Bondra opened the season in the IHL, playing seven games for the
Vipers. On Oct. 20, Washington finally relented on Bondra, signing him to a
five-year contract worth roughly $1.2 million per season (a 300 percent
raise over his previous contract). With Bondra signed, it became easier to
re-sign Pivonka. Within hours of the Bondra signing, the Pivonka deal was
made for a five-year, $5 million incentive-laden contract that fell well short of Winter's
goals, because Pivonka's
salary did not reach $1 million until the third year of the deal. In
addition, before Pivonka could return to the Capitals, Poile reportedly sat down
with Pivonka for a four-hour lecture on why Pivonka needed to do more for
the teams in
terms of leadership. He made his 1995-96 NHL regular-season debut in
Washington's Oct. 29, 1995, game at St. Louis. |
| NON-NHL CAREER |
Post-Draft Teams:
Jihlava (Czechoslovakia); Baltimore (AHL); Klagenfurt (Austria); Detroit (IHL);
Kansas City (IHL)
Canada Cup: 1991 (sixth
place)
World Championships: 1985
(gold medal), 1986 (fifth place)
World Jr. Championships: 1985
(silver medal), 1986 (fourth place)
NON-NHL
AWARDS AND HONORS
Czechoslovakia
Championship: 1985 (Jihlava)
World Junior Championships Best Forward:
1985
World Junior Championships All-Star First Team: 1985, 1986
Miscellaneous: Led Czechoslovakia
with 13 points and nine goals in 1985 World Junior Championships. ... Tied
for Czechoslovakia team lead with five goals in 1986 World Junior
Championships. ... Was on Washington
team that held 1989 training camp in Sweden before joining Calgary for 1989
NHL Friendship Tour in Soviet Union. The Capitals faced four Soviet teams on
the tour. ... Played in Austria during the 1994-95 NHL lockout. ... Signed
with Kansas City (IHL) as an unrestricted free agent on Sept. 27, 1999. ...
Worked at Washington Capitals hockey school during off-seasons of his early
playing days. ... Was active in charitable causes during his playing days,
including his joint effort with Peter Bondra to set up a fund-raising
campaign for the Children's Hospital and the Children's Inn at the National
Institute of Health in Bethesda, Md. ... Avid tennis player.
Pivonka's Defection: Washington gambled when it drafted
Pivonka in 1984 because he would not be
allowed to leave Czechoslovakia without permission from the Czech
authorities -- permission that was unlikely to be granted from the Iron
Curtain nation. But two
years later the Capitals' gamble paid off when Pivonka daringly defected and
eventually arrived in Washington on July 18, 1986. Escaping his home
country wasn't easy for Pivonka and fiancee, Renata Nekvindova, but while on
vacation in Yugoslavia, they managed to defect by sneaking over to Trieste,
Italy, and then going straight to Rome. They had been cleared to do this by
Washington general manager David Poile and Jack Button, the Caps' director
of player personnel, who kept in touch with Pivonka for the full two years
after the 1984 draft, even traveling to Sweden to meet Pivonka while the
latter was there for a tournament. It was Button who convinced Pivonka that
he would have a better life in North America. By December 1985, at the World
Juniors in Hamilton, Ontario, Button and Poile met Pivonka and secretly
agreed on a five-year contract that would take effect if he could defect in
July 1986. Once they got to Rome, Pivonka and Nekvindova were given
temporary refugee status by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service,
enabling them to fly to New York. They then went to Washington, and four
days later, on July 22, the Capitals held a news conference to introduce
Pivonka to the local media. Pivonka refused to comment on his "personal
reasons" for leaving Czechoslovakia, and his arrival in the U.S. was
something of a minor international incident, because a spokesman for his
country's embassy in Washington criticized the Capitals for not attempting
to get Pivonka through legal channels. |
|
|
Help support the rebuilding of HDC! |
HockeyDraftCentral.com is in the middle of rebuilding. You are
looking at a page that is not yet updated but is still part of the old site.
Find out how you can help make this an even better site by bidding on eBay
auctions.
• Learn More
|
|
SNAPSHOT '84 | | Total Selected: |
250 | | Forwards: |
142 | | Defense: |
88 | | Goaltenders: |
20 | | Major Junior: |
110 | | Tier II/Jr. B: |
16/9 | | College Players: |
23 | | High School: |
47 | | Midget: |
4 | | U.S. Junior B: |
1 |
| Canadian: |
145 |
| Euro-Canadian: |
2 | | USA Citizens: |
62 | | U.S.-Born: |
63 |
| European: |
41 |
| Reached NHL: |
102 |
| Stanley Cup: |
20 | | Hall of Fame: |
1 |
| All-Star Game: |
18 |
| Year-end All-Star: |
7 |
| Olympians: |
31 |
|
|
