Libor Polasek

Polasek was a very promising talent, leaving Czech republic when he was 18 years old. The Canucks selected Polasek ahead of their next selection Michael Peca (who played more than 860 NHL regular-season games). The team hoped that the tall (6’4") Czech center would develop into a Mark Messier-like player. Instead, Polasek had difficulty making an impact even at the minor-leagues. He played 3 rather average seasons in AHL, in the third year he was sentenced to ECHL for some time. After another unsuccessful start to AHL season 1995-96 he left North America and returned home to Czech republic, without ever playing in an NHL game. He settled in Czech league, but did not make a great impact there either. He was never called for national team and his statistics continued to be average. After one season in Swedish Allsvenskan he continued in Slovakia and lower Czech leagues, finishing his rather unsuccesful career in his hometown for HC Koprivnice. In almost a decade of playing for Czech and Slovak teams he scored just 41 goals from 1996–97 to 2005–06. After retiring due to injury, he became a coach and later vicepresident of HC Koprivnice in Czech3.