Jakub Vrána

Jakub Vrána  (born on February 28, 1996 in Praha) is a Czech professional ice hockey left/right winger currently playing with the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL. Vrána was selected by the Washington Capitals in the first round (13th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

Club career
Vrána played in the 2009 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the Piráti Chomutov.

In 2009 - 2011 played Vrána junior hockey with the HC Letňany organisation.

In 2011 moved Vrána to the Linköping HC organisation. Vrána made his senior debut playing 5 games with theLinköping HC of the Elitserien during the 2012-13 season. In this season, he also played 3 regular season games and 2 play-off games with the Linköping HC under-18 team and 32 regular season games and 5 play-off games with the Kinköping HC under-20 team.

In the 2013-14 season, he played 1 regular season game and 3 play-off games with the Linköping HC under-18 team, 24 games with the Linköping HC under-20 team and 24 regular season games and 14 play-off games with the Linköping HC of the SHL (formerly Elitserien).

Vrána signed his first NHL contract with the Washington Capitals, a three-year entry level deal on July 15, 2014. He began the 2014-15 season on loan with the Linköping HC of the SHL where he played another 44 regular season games and 11 play-off games. In this season, he was the junior who scored most goals (12) and most points (24) in the SHL. After the completion of the European season, Vrána finished the season with 3 regular season games and 10 play-off games played with the Hershey Bears of the AHL.

Vrána then spent the whole 2015-16 season with the Hershey Bears of the AHL. On February 7, 2016, he became the AHL Player of the Week.

On November 29, 2016, he received his first NHL callup from the Hershey Bears of the AHL. He made his NHL debut on December 1, 2016 with the Washington Capitals against the New York Islanders. Vrána scored his first NHL goal on December 9, 2016 against the Buffalo Sabres. He was reassigned to the Hershey Bears on January 1, 2017. All in all, in this season played Vrána 21 games with the Washington Capitals of the NHL and 49 regular season games and 7 play-off games with the Hershey Bears of the AHL.

Vrána made the Capitals opening night roster for the 2017-18 season. His rookie season was considered "roller-coaster", ending up 13 goals scored and 14 assists in 73 regular season games. Vrána made his NHL playoff debut during the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs, providing the "speedy, offensive complement to the shutdown duo" of Nicklas Bäckström and T.J. Oshie on the second line.

He scored his first postseason goal on April 29, 2018 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Capitals would go on to beat the Penguins in six games and then win the Eastern Conference by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games. He scored the opening goal in game five of the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals against the Vegas Golden Knights which resulted in the Capitals' victory. Vrána ended the postseason with 8 points in 23 games to help the Capitals win their first Stanley Cup.

On July 16, 2019, the Capitals re-signed Vrána to a two-year, $6.7 million contract extension.

On April 12, 2021, after 39 games played in the 2020-21 season, Vrána was traded to the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL. He finished there the season with 11 games played

International career
Vrána played with the Czech National Team at the 2012 World U17 Hockey Challenge, 2012, 2013 and 2014 World U18 Championship s (being selected one of the top 3 players on the Czech team at the 2012 tournament and winning silver at the 2014 tournament where he was also the tournament's best goalscorer with 8 goals scored and was named one of the top 3 players on the Czech squad), 2013, 2014 and 2015 World Junior Championship s (being the youngest player of the 2013 tournament) and at the 2019 World Championship.