Ladislav Benýšek (born March 25, 1975) is a Czech former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

who played 161 games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

with the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...

and

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and play their home games at the Xcel Ener ...

between 1997 and 2003. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1992 to 2013, was mainly spent in various European leagues. Internationally Benýšek played for the Czech national team at three World Championships, winning gold in both

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Career

Benýšek was selected by the Oilers in the 11th round of the

1994 NHL Entry Draft The 1994 NHL Entry Draft was the 32nd NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the Hartford Civic Center on June 28–29, 1994. The last active players in the NHL from this draft class were Patrik Elias and Eric Boulton, who both played their last NHL g ...

, 266th overall, after spending the previous season with his hometown

HC Olomouc HC Olomouc is an ice hockey team in the Czech Extraliga (first-level league) from Olomouc. They won the Extraliga championship in the 1993/1994 season. In 1997 the club sold the Extraliga license to HC Karlovy Vary, and was thus relegated to t ...

of the Czech league. Following the draft, Benýšek came over to North America, and spent the 1994–95 season with the

Cape Breton Oilers The Cape Breton Oilers were a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. The team was the top minor league affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Oilers' organization relocated the team from Hali ...

, Edmonton's

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

farm team. Benýšek returned to Europe for the next two seasons, playing for Olomouc and

Sparta Praha ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

. Electing to again spend a season in North America, Benýšek played his first NHL hockey in the 1997–98 season, going pointless in two games. Aside from that brief stint, however, Benýšek was again confined to the AHL, where he played for the Hamilton Bulldogs. Despite eventually being claimed off waivers by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Benýšek would spend the next three seasons back with Sparta Praha. It was not until the

2000 NHL Expansion Draft The 2000 NHL Expansion Draft was held on June 23, 2000, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The draft took place to fill the rosters of the league's two expansion teams for the 2000–01 season, the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild. Rules 2 ...

, when the newly formed

selected Benýšek from the Ducks that he got the opportunity to play regular minutes. For the next two seasons, Benýšek was an integral part of the Wild blueline. In his third season with the Wild, Benysek played only 14 games before being assigned to the AHL's Houston Aeros. Following the completion of the season, Benýšek returned to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, where he joined

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

and also had a spell in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

with Leksands IF. In 2006, Benýšek rejoined Sparta Praha for a third spell which lasted one season before he moved to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Ligue Magnus The Ligue Magnus, currently known as Synerglace Ligue Magnus for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's division of the French ice hockey pyramid, established in 1906. The league operated under a variety of names before taking that of its champion ...

for

Dragons de Rouen Rouen Hockey Élite 76 (also known as the Dragons de Rouen (Rouen Dragons)) is a French ice hockey team based in Rouen playing in the Ligue Magnus. The team was founded in 1982 and plays home games at the Île Lacroix. History Only 3 years aft ...

. In 2008, Benýšek moved to Denmark's Oddset Ligaen with TOTEMPO HvIK. He then spent three seasons in Italy before moving to the United Kingdom to play for the

Braehead Clan Glasgow Clan (formerly ''Braehead Clan'') is a Scotland, Scottish professional ice hockey team. It was formed in 2010 as the UK Elite Ice Hockey League expanded into the west of Scotland market, and are based at the Braehead Arena in Renfrewshir ...

based in Glasgow, Scotland, where he would play just nine games, before retiring.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benysek, Ladislav 1975 births Living people Asiago Hockey 1935 players Braehead Clan players Copenhagen Hockey players Czech ice hockey defencemen Edmonton Oilers draft picks Edmonton Oilers players HC Olomouc players HC Sparta Praha players HC Valpellice players HIFK (ice hockey) players Houston Aeros (1994–2013) players Leksands IF players Minnesota Wild players Minnesota Wild scouts Rouen HE 76 players SHC Fassa players Sportspeople from Olomouc