Luděk Čajka

Luděk Čajka
Date of birth	3rd November 1963
place of birth	Český Těšín , Czechoslovakia
date of death	February 14, 1990
Place of death	Košice , Czechoslovakia
size	191 cm
Weight	89 kg
position	defender
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1987 , 6th lap, 115th position New York Rangers
Career stations
1982-1985	TJ Gottwaldov
1985-1987	HC Dukla Jihlava
1987-1990	TJ Gottwaldov

Luděk Čajka (born November 3, 1963 in Český Těšín , † February 14, 1990 in Košice ) was a Czechoslovak ice hockey player who played as a defender.

Career

He began his career in the 1982/83 season with TJ Gottwaldov . He played there for three years before moving to HC Dukla Jihlava . For the Czechoslovak national ice hockey team he played at the ice hockey world championship in 1987 . Also in 1987 he took part in the Izvestia Cup and the Canada Cup . In that year, the NHL had become aware of him and so Čajka was drawn in the NHL Entry Draft 1987 by the New York Rangers as 115th.

However, he stayed in his home country and returned to TJ Gottwaldov for the 1987/88 season. Čajka was so seriously injured on January 6, 1990 in the ice hockey game in Košice between the VSŽ Košice and his team TJ Gottwaldov that he succumbed to his injuries after a two-month coma. While trying to get to the puck as a defense attorney to prevent an icing , he had been checked and hit the gang with his head. This accident was one of the reasons to abolish touch icing in Europe and internationally .

Čajka completed a total of 59 international matches and scored 3 goals. In memory of Luděk Čajka, the ice hockey hall of the HC Zlín has been named Zimní stadion Luďka Čajky since 1990 . In 2017, Čajka was posthumously accepted into the Czech Ice Hockey Hall of Fame .

Web links

• Luděk Čajka at hockeydb.com (English)
• Article about the accident (Czech)
• Portrait on hokejarchiv.zlin.cz (Czech)