Miroslav Šatan

Miroslav Šatan (pron. Shah-tahn) (born on October 22, 1974 in Topoľčany) is a retired Slovak ice hockey right winger. He is currently the general manager of the Slovak National Team and the president of the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation. He was selected 111th overall by the Edmonton Oilers in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. In the 2018-19 season, he was introduced to the IIHF Hall of Fame.

Club career
Šatan had initially began his career in the 1991-92 season when he played 9 games with his hometown club, the HC Topoľčany of the 1. SNHL. In this season, he also played 31 games with the HC Topoľčany under-20 team. The following two seasons, he played with the HK Dukla Trenčín of the 1. NHL and since the 1993-94 season (after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia) of the Slovenská Extraliga V Ľadovom Hokeji. In the 1993-94 season, he became the Slovak champion and was the player who scored most goals (42) and recorded most points (64) in the Slovenská Extraliga V Ľadovom Hokeji.

His North American career begins in the 1994-95 season. He played 1 game with the Detroit Falcons of the CoHL, 25 games with the Cape Breton Oilers of the AHL, 8 games with the Detroit Vipers of the IHL and 6 games with the San Diego Gulls of the IHL.

In the 1995-96 season, he played with the Edmonton Oilers of the NHL. In March 1996, Šatan was named the NHL Rookie of the Month.

After 64 games played with the Oilers in the 1996-97 season, Šatan is dealt to the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL for Craig Millar and Barry Moore. The skilled Slovak emerged as a first-line forward for the Sabres, being one of the key member of the team. He finished there the 1996-97 season with 12 regular season games and 7 play-off games played.

Šatan continued with the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL for next two seasons.

Šatan then began the 1999-00 season with the HK Dukla Trenčín of the West Extraliga (formerly Slovenská Extraliga V Ľadovom Hokeji) where he played 3 games before his return to the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL. In this season, he played 81 regular season games and 5 play-off games with the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL and also played at the 2000 NHL All-Star Game. After this season, he won the Golden Puck for the Slovak player of the year. Then Šatan continued with the Buffalo Sabres for the next three seasons. After the 2000-01 season, he won the Golden Puck once again. In the 2002-03 season, he played at the 2003 NHL All-Star Game.

Šatan began the 2003-04 season with the HC Slovan Bratislava of the ST Extraliga (formerly West Extraliga). He played there 8 games before he moved back to the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL where he finished the season with 82 games played. After this season, Šatan won the Golden Puck for the third time.

In the 2004-05 season, he played with the HC Slovan Bratislava of the ST Extraliga, tallying 20 points in 18 regular season games and 22 points in 18 play-off games. In this season, he became the Slovak champion, was selected into the ST Extraliga All-Star Team as he was the best goal-scorer (15 goals) in the play-offs and recorded most points (22) in the play-offs. In this season, he also played at the common Tipsport Extraliga and ST Extraliga All-Star Game.

As the labour dispute ceased in North America, Šatan came back and signed a three-years deal with the New York Islanders of the NHL, with whom he posted in the 2005-06 season his highest goal output since 2002. He also turned out to be one of the best players of the league in the shootouts, scoring 7 times in 10 appearances.

After the three years with Islanders, he played one year with the Pittsburgh Penguins organisation. In this season, he played 65 regualar season games and 17 play-off games with the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL and 10 games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL and became the Stanley Cup champion.

Then played Šatan one season with the Boston Bruins of the NHL.

After that, Šatan began the 2010-11 season with the HC Slovan Bratislava of the Slovnaft Extraliga (formerly ST Extraliga). He played there 10 games before he moved to the OHK Dynamo Moskva of the KHL where he finished the season with 6 regular season games and 2 play-off games played.

Then he played his last three seasons with the HC Slovan Bratislava of the Tipsport Extraliga (formerly Slovnaft Extraliga) and since the 2012-13 season of the KHL. In the 2011-12 season, he became the Slovak champion and was selected into the Tipsport Extraliga All-Star Team as he was the player who scored most points (22) in the play-offs. In the 2013-14 season, Šatan played at the 2014 KHL All-Star Game.

International career
He dressed up for the Slovak National Team for 1994 World Junior Championship "Pool C" (being named the best forward of the tournament as he was the player who scored most points (13) at the tournament), 1994 World Championship "Pool C" (being there selected the tournament's best forward), 1995 World Championship "Pool B" (being there selected into the tournament's all-star team), 1996, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 World Championships (winning silver at the 2000 tournament where he was also named the tournament's best forward and made it into the tournament's all-star team as he was the player who scored most goals (10) and points (12) at the 2000 tournament, winning gold at the 2002 tournament where he was also named the tournament's MVP and was selected into the tournament's all-star team as he was the player with most assists (8) and most points (13) scored at the 2002 tournament, winning bronze at the 2003 tournament, being named one of the top 3 players on the Slovak team at the 2011 tournament and winning silver once again at the 2012 tournament), 1996 and 2004 World Cups of Hockey and 1994, 2002, 2006 and 2010 Olympics (being the best goal-scorer at the 1994 tournament with 9 goals scored).

As the general manager, Šatan represented Team Europe at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey (finishing there as the runner-up) and Slovakia at the 2018 Olympics and at the 2018 and 2019 World Championship s.