Dominik Hasek

Born on January 29, 1965, Dominik Hasek grew up in the city of Pardubice, Czechoslovakia, as the Czech Republic was then known. His father, Jan, worked as a miner, a job that usually kept him away from home during the week. A fan of his town's hockey team, Tesla, Hasek always sought out the goaltender's position when he played with his friends. Even when he played soccer, Hasek insisted on being the goalie. At the age of six he tried out for a local hockey team and made the cut, in part because he was so tall for his age. Eventually,

Dominik Hasek

Hasek grew to five feet, eleven inches; weighing less than one-hundred-seventy pounds, Hasek was a relatively slight as a hockey player, but his enormous flexibility and quick reflexes more than made up for his size.

Largely self-taught as a goalie, Hasek studied other goaltenders to learn defensive plays and strategies. Part of the junior champion Tesla team in 1981, Hasek was good enough to earn a spot on the Tesla senior team that same year. He ended up playing for the team for eight years, two of which ended in national championships for Tesla. Hasek's playing was so good that he was even selected in the 1983 draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. Given the Communist Party's control over Czechoslovakia at that time, Hasek did not even learn about his draft until months later. The teenager decided not to try to leave Czechoslovakia, even though he had already begun thinking about playing in the NHL. Named the Czechoslovakian goaltender of the year for five consecutive years after 1986 and Czechoslovakian player of the year in 1987, 1989, and 1990, Hasek was widely considered to be the best European goaltender of the day.