Roman Simicek

Simicek's time on the Penguins was short lived...very short lived.  In fact, Roman spent virtually no time in the NHL in his career, even though he started playing in 1989-90 and is still on an active professional roster today.

How is this possible, you ask?  He has played in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland for many of those years.  His only stints on NHL squads were in 2000-01 and 2001-02 where he split time between the Pens, Minnesota, and Minnesota's AHL team, the Houston Aeros.

Simicek was drafted in the 9th round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by the Pens.  That made him the 273rd overall pick.  Not much could have been expected of him as a prospect and that's exactly what his career as a Pen amounted to.  He played only 29 games in 00-01 putting up 3 goals, 6 assists and 30 penalty minutes.

In an already stacked team of Centermen that included the likes of Mario Lemieux, Robert Lang, Milan Kraft, Jan Hrdina, and Tobey Petersen, there was no room for Roman.  The Pens needed wing support for their playoff push that year and he was subsequently traded to the Minnesota Wild for Steve McKenna (who stayed with the Pens for a few years).  He spent the rest of the season and part of the next on the Wild.

This card is from the 2000-01 BAP Signature Series set.  Roman signs his name backward (last, first) to some but customary where he comes from.  It's interesting he uses the little accent mark thingy over his name.  Most of the references to him online have those things too.  Maybe I will start using them on my name.