NHL players of Yugoslavian descent

[Booba]

I assume it is Goran Bezina, he was born in Split, Croatia but represents Switzerland in international hockey, in fact played in the 2006 Olympics and is in the squad for this years as well. He only played 2-3 games for the Coyotes, spent most of his time in the AHL before returning to the Swiss league

About Vlasic, thats the one I want to know as well, I know Vlasic is Croatian surname, but his first name makes it seem he isn't 100% (French mother, or not first generation)

I know that he speaks french and english very well (but he seems a little bit more fluent in English)

I wouldn't be surprised if he had french, english and croatian heritage.

 

[crobro]

brad lukowich

milan hejduk(ethnic croat from slovakia)

dave babych

ron stern (croatian jew)

just a few more for the list.

on a side note with all the players medvescak signed last year they will be eligable to play for the croatian national team,i believe you have to play 2 years in the croatian league to be able to represent croatia.if medvescak alone was the croatian team alone they coukld break out of their group eassy.

 

[HajdukSplit]

thats what I'm hoping for, guys like Prpich and Hecimovic stay for two seasons and decide to play for Croatia. Not that we would be anything special, but we would at least have a shot to make the World Group where we would be crushed by everybody

 

[slovakiasnextone]

brad lukowich

milan hejduk(ethnic croat from slovakia)

dave babych

ron stern (croatian jew)

just a few more for the list.

on a side note with all the players medvescak signed last year they will be eligable to play for the croatian national team,i believe you have to play 2 years in the croatian league to be able to represent croatia.if medvescak alone was the croatian team alone they coukld break out of their group eassy.

Where the hell did you find that piece of info? First of all, Hejduk is from the Czech republic and never heard of him having anything to do with Croatia, IMO he´s probably as Czech as you can get.

The only "famous" hockey player from Slovakia that has anything to do with former Yugoslavia is Branko Radivojevič, who´s dad is Serbian.

 

[crobro]

will any north american born skaters playing for medvescak be eligable to play for croatia in the world championships this season?

 

[misfit]

Nicholas Drazenovic in the Blues system is Croatian (his dad's side), though he's not yet an NHL player (He's having a decent season in the AHL). I haven't given up hope yet

 

[RTN]

Where the hell did you find that piece of info? First of all, Hejduk is from the Czech republic and never heard of him having anything to do with Croatia, IMO he´s probably as Czech as you can get.

The only "famous" hockey player from Slovakia that has anything to do with former Yugoslavia is Branko Radivojevič, who´s dad is Serbian.

I must agree. I have never seen anything concrete that says Hejduk is anything but Czech, though I do know many people who assume he's Croatian or Polish because of his last name (similar to Hajduk). Though I guess he could be a White Croat, since a few hundred thousand lived in south Poland/Czechoslovakia in the early 20th century, though most have assimilated by now.

If the poster has a source though, I'd be interested in seeing it.

 

[crobro]

frankie hejduk

Frankie's Croatian surname, "Hejduk", is a derived name of Hajduk. He has been married to Elissa Zurcher since 2005 and has two sons, Frankie Nesta (born 2/25/98) and Coasten Daniel (born 1/2/2008). His favorite soccer team is Boca Juniors and his favorite player was Claudio Caniggia. He is also a fan of the San Diego Chargers. Hejduk is a huge fan of Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley and celebrates his goals by replicating the hypnotic dances Marley did during his performances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Hejduk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Gašparovič

the president of slovakia is croat by the way.

 

[RTN]

frankie hejduk

Frankie's Croatian surname, "Hejduk", is a derived name of Hajduk. He has been married to Elissa Zurcher since 2005 and has two sons, Frankie Nesta (born 2/25/98) and Coasten Daniel (born 1/2/2008). His favorite soccer team is Boca Juniors and his favorite player was Claudio Caniggia. He is also a fan of the San Diego Chargers. Hejduk is a huge fan of Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley and celebrates his goals by replicating the hypnotic dances Marley did during his performances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Hejduk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Gašparovič

the president of slovakia is croat by the way.

While Milan Hejduk may be of Croatian decent (to me, Hejduk even looks Croatian), he is not Croatian just because Frank Hejduk is Croatian. The word "hajduk" and similar words are found across Eastern Europe.

It is like the Croatian last name "Kovač." Kovač is also found in Slovenia, Serbia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania.

 

[Mr Brownstone]

Tom Zanoski of the Lake Erie Monsters is Croatian. His parents moved here when he was 10 or so. His birthplace isn't listed as Croatia, though.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

frankie hejduk

Frankie's Croatian surname, "Hejduk", is a derived name of Hajduk. He has been married to Elissa Zurcher since 2005 and has two sons, Frankie Nesta (born 2/25/98) and Coasten Daniel (born 1/2/2008). His favorite soccer team is Boca Juniors and his favorite player was Claudio Caniggia. He is also a fan of the San Diego Chargers. Hejduk is a huge fan of Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley and celebrates his goals by replicating the hypnotic dances Marley did during his performances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Hejduk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Gašparovič

the president of slovakia is croat by the way.

While Milan Hejduk may be of Croatian decent (to me, Hejduk even looks Croatian), he is not Croatian just because Frank Hejduk is Croatian. The word "hajduk" and similar words are found across Eastern Europe.

It is like the Croatian last name "Kovač." Kovač is also found in Slovenia, Serbia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania.

I agree with Skanker.

If we´d consider everyone in Central and Eastern Europe to be a part of the nation that their name indicates, at leats half of this region would belong to a completely different country/nation they identify themselves with. Bloodlines over here are completely mixed. For example over the hundreds fo years we´ve had Slovaks, Magyars, Romanians, Rusyns, Germans, Czechs,Jews, Southern Slavs (mainly Croats, Poles etc. come and live at leats some areas of what today is Slovakia or come into contact with the Slovak ethnicum, so it´s very likely that the majority of the population has at least some of this nations in them and that names of Slovak people can orriginate from languages of this nations.
My name´s most probably of German origin, although I know of French variations too, but it doesn´t change anything on the fact that I´m 100% Slovak. As long as I know Hejduk doesn´t claim to be of Croat origin. AS for our "dear" Mr. president, not that I object to you guys having him, but it´s very discutable to claim that he is Croat, as long as I know only one of his parents actually is a Croat, so it would maybe be better to say that he has Croat herritage, especially as he himself is a Slovak nationalist.


I also don´t like how many people from the Southern Slavic nations jump to the conclusion that anyone whose names ends in ič automatically has Southern Slavic herritage or is Croat, Serb or something. Although not as common as in for example Croatia, names ending in ič are pretty common even in Slovakia for example Mlynarovič, Lalkovič, Vojsovič or Jančovič and I seriously doubt that anyone who doesn´t have some serious education in ethymology of names can tell you just from looking at the name to which nation it belongs and especially to which Slavic. I often have trouble distinguishing to which nation a Slavic name belongs. Sorry for that rant, but just recently I saw some Serbs at a soccer forum claim that Milan Lalkovič from Chelsea youth is Serbian their only proof being the ič in his surname.

As for the Kováč surname, well it´s no surprise, my friend sinc eit means Smith, so it´s as common in Slavic world (yes, I´m including Hungary in that, as Smith in the English speaking world. Interesting thing is that Kováč is only the 2nd most common surname in Slovakia. According to data from 2003 the most common surname in Slovakia is Horváth, which is the Hungarian form meant Hrvat- Croat. I also believe that on the other hand the most common surname in Hungary is Tóth, which was used as a name for Slovaks by Hungarians at one point of time.

Anyway, this whole was absolutely off topic, but Milan Hejduk wil be 100% Czech to me as long as he doesn´t claim otherwise or as long as crobro doesn´t show me some serious proof that he is of Croatian descent. By your logic crobro, I could very easily claim Travis Zajac to be Slovak, because of Rudolf Zajac, former Slovak minister of health and some other people from Slovakia with that surname. And I´m pretty sure there are a bunch of other players that someone from a nation could claim to belong to it based on the name solely.

 

[croAVSfan*]

http://mapleleafshotstove.com/index.php/2009/01/31/gtky-phil-oreskovic/


Oreskovic is croat, not serb. Oreskovic is pure croatian surname, as Sertich

 

[MrSports*]

Joe Sakic

Frank Mahovlic

Peter Mahovlic

John Kordic

Willie Mitchell

Cory Sarich

Any More?

they are a good players indeed!

 

[Boris RS]

Not so about topic, but still...

Because of strict IIHF rules about who can play for national team for our team Serbia last year (in Division II championship) played three Canadians (because of stupid our bureaucracy they got citizenship just before championship ).

This year we have additional Canadian, one Serb from Canada, and one Russian .

So, because of IIHF rules our guys from Canada can't play for us . I can bet we would easily cruse into Elite division.

 

[Sundinisagod]

Mark Popovic - Serbian (mentionned him in the previous post)
Alex Petrovic - Serbian
Luke Gazdic - Croatian
Mark Fistric - Croatian

To this list we can add Phil Oreskovic who is also Serbian.

From what I hear Popovic and Oreskovic are Croation. There was a Popovic in Montreal (I think somewhere in the 90's) who I think was of Serbian descent.

 

[Sundinisagod]

Joe Sakic

Frank Mahovlic

Peter Mahovlic

John Kordic

Willie Mitchell

Cory Sarich

Any More?

Willie Mitchell??? Had no clue there.

 

[garbageteam]

Willie Mitchell??? Had no clue there.

How about discussing players that actually WILL play for the nat'l team? Considering Croatia has a shot at moving to the WC level (though not on a good start being beaten 4-1 to GBR)

 

[slovakiasnextone]

How about discussing players that actually WILL play for the nat'l team? Considering Croatia has a shot at moving to the WC level (though not on a good start being beaten 4-1 to GBR)

Er, what are you talking about? Croatia will have a lot of trouble even to avoid relegation with probably the decisive game being against South Korea.

 

[jkrx]

For those of you who gets confused by nationalities its no wonder. Most former yugoslavians have roots from different part of balkan after the split. I dont know a single person from that area who are "pure breed"-crotian for example. Its always "my grandma is serb/bosnian/macedon/albanian/montenegro and my dad is serb/bosnian/macedon/albanian/montenegro and my uncle is serb/bosnian/macedon/albanian/montenegro" etc.

 

[mattihp]

From what I hear Popovic and Oreskovic are Croation. There was a Popovic in Montreal (I think somewhere in the 90's) who I think was of Serbian descent.

The Swede, Peter Popovic could very well be of croatian descent.

But as he speaks both Serbian, Croatian as well as bosnian, I'd bet that there's a shot that he considers himself Bosnian. Could be either I guess.

 

[Torch]

I didn't see it mentioned, but Nick Drazenovic is a Cro as well. I know his dad (sold me a car).

I believe Stan Smrke was Šokci from Serbia, although all Šokci I know consider themselves Croats.

 

[croAVSfan*]

I didn't see it mentioned, but Nick Drazenovic is a Cro as well. I know his dad (sold me a car).

I believe Stan Smrke was Å okci from Serbia, although all Å okci I know consider themselves Croats.

Drazenovic is from Brinje in Lika

Smrke sounds more slovenian than serbian/croatian

 

[bos66]

From what I hear Popovic and Oreskovic are Croation. There was a Popovic in Montreal (I think somewhere in the 90's) who I think was of Serbian descent.

Phil Oreskovic is definately a Croatian Canadian as stated previously. My dad and Phil's grandma on his father's side were first cousins.

 

[Brandinho]

Wrong, I have met the family at many Macedonian functions, far from being Greek, yes his grandparents are from Greece but ethnic Macedonians, lets see what family friend and hockey expert Bob Mackenzie has to say......

Ethnic Macedonian? LOL.

Macedonian isn't an ethnicity - there are Greek Macedonians and Slavic Macedonians. Stamkos is clearly not Slavic.

 

[zamo86*]

But as he speaks both Serbian, Croatian as well as bosnian,

For me those are just different dialects of the same language. The difference between Serbian and Croatian is something like between English (USA) and English (ENG) or Spanish (ESP) and Spanish (ARG). But OK, since there is an expression that you are worth as much as how many languages you know then I am proud to know Slovene, English, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin and understand German and people from FYRM.

BTW: To bad about the IIHF rules. Stajan holds dual citizenship of CAN and SLO, speaks Slovene and is an active member of the Slovene expatriate in Canada. He expressed his desire to play for SLO NT a while back but he would have to play for 2 or 3 years in Slovenia before he would be granted the right, by the IIHF, to play for the national team.