How to Pronounce Dominik Hašek
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Jan 29, 1965 Pardubice, Pardubice Region, Czech Republic 59 years old
Czech ice hockey player
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About Dominik Haek
- Dominik Hašek (Czech pronunciation: ['dom?n?k '?a??k], audio ; born January 29, 1965) is a Czech former ice hockey goaltender.
- In his 16-season National Hockey League (NHL) career, he played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators.
- During his years in Buffalo, he became one of the league's finest goaltenders, earning him the nickname "The Dominator".
- His strong play has been credited with establishing European goaltenders in a league previously dominated by North Americans.
- He is a two-time Stanley Cup champion, both with the Red Wings. Hašek was one of the league's most successful goaltenders of the 1990s and early 2000s.
- From 1993 to 2001, he won six Vezina Trophies, the most under the award's current system of voting for the best individual goalie.
- In 1998 he won his second consecutive Hart Memorial Trophy, becoming the first goaltender to win the award multiple times.
- During the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, he led the Czech national ice hockey team to its first and only Olympic gold medal.
- The feat made him a popular figure in his home country and prompted hockey legend Wayne Gretzky to call him "the best player in the game".
- While with the Red Wings in 2002, Hašek became the first European-trained starting goaltender to win the Stanley Cup.
- In the process, he set a record for shutouts in a postseason year. Hašek was considered an unorthodox goaltender, with a distinct style that labeled him a "flopper".
- He was best known for his concentration, foot speed, flexibility, and unconventional saves, such as covering the puck with his blocker rather than his trapper.
- Hašek holds the highest career save percentage of all time (0.9223) and is seventh in goals against average (first in the modern era) (2.202), and the third-highest single-season save percentage (0.9366 in 1998–99).
- The record was broken by Tim Thomas in the 2010–11 season and again in the 2011–12 season by Brian Elliott, who now holds the record at .940.
- Hašek is the only goalie to face the most shots per 60 minutes and have the highest save percentage in one season.
- He did it twice while with the Sabres (1996 and 1998). At the time of his retirement, he was the oldest active goalie in the NHL at 43, and the second-oldest active player in the league after Red Wings teammate Chris Chelios, who was 46.
- Hašek announced his retirement on June 9, 2008, but on April 21, 2009, he announced a comeback to professional hockey and signed a contract with HC Pardubice of the Czech Extraliga.
- On June 7, 2010, he signed with Spartak Moscow of the KHL and played the last season of his career with this team.
- Hašek announced his retirement on October 9, 2012.
- Hašek was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 17, 2014.
- He is also a member of the Czech Ice Hockey Hall of Fame and the IIHF Hall of Fame.
- His number was retired by the Sabres and HC Pardubice.
