John Hećimović (born March 31, 1984) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

-born

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player. He most notably played in the

Erste Bank Eishockey Liga The ICE Hockey League (International Central European Hockey League, ICEHL), known as the win2day ICE Hockey League for sponsorship reasons, is a Central European hockey league that also serves as the top-tier ice hockey league in Austria. It c ...

with

KHL Medveščak The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; ) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs based in Russia (20), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1), and China (1) for a total of 23 clubs. It was considered in ...

and Dornbirner EC. Hećimović's ancestors hail from

Perušić Perušić is a naselje, settlement and a municipalities of Croatia, municipality in Lika-Senj County, Croatia. In 2011, the municipality had 2,638 inhabitants, while the central settlement had 852. The municipality is within the mountainous Lika re ...

Lika Lika () is a traditional region of Croatia proper, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by t ...

Playing career

Hećimović was selected in the 9th round (264th overall) of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Panthers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team initially played it ...

. John was drafted from

Major Junior Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National List of members of the International Ice Hockey Federation, Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's nationa ...

Sarnia Sting The Sarnia Sting are a junior ice hockey team based in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. They are one of the 20 teams that make up the Ontario Hockey League. They play out of the Progressive Auto Sales Arena (formerly the Sarnia Sports and Entertainment ...

of the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; ) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League, alongside the Western Hockey League and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. The league is for players ag ...

. In his fifth season with the Sting ( 2004–05) he was traded to the

Mississauga IceDogs The Mississauga IceDogs were a Canadian junior ice hockey team in Mississauga, Ontario. They played in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998 to 2007. A sale relocated the team to St. Catharines, Ontario for the 2007–08 season and they are now ca ...

to finish his junior career. In his career Hećimović has played in the 2nd Austrian, German, and Swiss league. In the 2008–09 season he was the leading scorer of the Dutch Championship, helping

HYS The Hague HYS The Hague (Dutch: "Hijs Hockij Den Haag") is a professional ice hockey club in The Hague, Netherlands. Founded in 1933, the club's top team plays in the Dutch/Belgian BeNe League and competes annually in the Dutch National Championships and th ...

win the title. On June 3, 2009, Hećimović signed as a free agent with Croatian team,

, joining the prestigious EBEL league. In the 2009–10 season, his first with the Bears, John scored 20 goals in 49 regular season games. At the 2010

Šalata Šalata () is a residential neighborhood in Zagreb, Croatia. It is administratively part of the Gornji Grad - Medveščak city district in the northern part of Zagreb and it has a population of 1,929. Šalata houses the Šalata Sport and Recre ...

Winter Classic, Hećimović became the first and top scorer with two goals, within EBEL history to score at Šalata in the defeat against Villach 2–3. On April 20, 2010, he was re-signed to a two-year contract as Medveščak finished seventh in the league. Hećimović moved onto a tryout at

HDD Olimpija Ljubljana Hokejsko drsalno društvo Olimpija Ljubljana, commonly referred to as HDD Olimpija or simply Olimpija, was a Slovenian professional ice hockey club from Ljubljana. They played their home games at the Tivoli Hall. Olimpija has won 13 Yugoslav Ice ...

. In October 2011 he signed a one-month deal with

Anyang Halla HL Anyang () is a professional ice hockey team based in Anyang (South Korea), Anyang in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. It is one of the founding and current members of the Asia League Ice Hockey (ALIH). Formed in 1994, it is the oldest profess ...

. On December 8, 2011, Hećimović was signed by the

Nippon Paper Cranes The were an Asia League Ice Hockey team based in Kushiro City in Hokkaidō, Japan. History The club was founded as Jūjō Paper Kushiro Ice Hockey Club in 1949. They adopted the new name Nippon Paper Cranes in 1993 when Jūjō Paper and Sanyō K ...

of the Asia League for the remainder of the 2011–12 season. After finishing the season with the

, Hećimović returned to the EBEL for one final season with Dornbirner EC. In 2013, Hećimović played for the Croatian national team at the

IIHF World Championship Division II The IIHF World Championship Division II are an annual sports event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The division championships are played in two groups, part of the Ice Hockey World Championships From 2001 until 2011, the t ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* *
John Hecimovic's profile at KHL MedveščakJohn Hecimovic's profile at Croatian hockeyportal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hecimovic, John 1984 births Living people HL Anyang players Canadian ice hockey right wingers Canadian people of Croatian descent Dornbirn Bulldogs players Florida Panthers draft picks KHL Medveščak Zagreb players Nippon Paper Cranes players Mississauga IceDogs players Pensacola Ice Pilots players Ice hockey people from Cambridge, Ontario Sarnia Sting players South Carolina Stingrays players Straubing Tigers players 21st-century Canadian sportsmen