Thomas Vanek

Austria Thomas Vanek


Date of birth	January 19, 1984
place of birth	Baden , Austria
size	188 cm
Weight	94 kg

position	Left wing
number	# 26
Shot hand	Right

Draft

NHL Entry Draft	2003 , 1st round, 5th position Buffalo Sabers

Career stations

1999-2002	Sioux Falls Stampede
2002-2004	University of Minnesota
2004-2005	Rochester Americans
2005-2013	Buffalo Sabers
2013-2014	New York Islanders
2014	Canadiens de Montréal
2014-2016	Minnesota Wild
2016-2017	Detroit Red Wings
2017	Florida panthers
2017-2018	Vancouver Canucks
2018	Columbus Blue Jackets
2018-2019	Detroit Red Wings

Thomas Vanek (born January 19, 1984 in Baden ) is a former Austrian ice hockey player . The winger played over 1000 games in the National Hockey League between 2005 and 2019 , where he spent almost his entire professional career, which was characterized by frequent transfers. In total, he ran for eight NHL teams and was mostly on the ice for the Buffalo Sabers , who had selected him in the NHL Entry Draft 2003 in fifth position and which he briefly led as team captain in 2013 . At the international level, he represented the national team of Austria at the 2014 Winter Olympics and four world championships. Overall, Vanek is the undisputed best Austrian ice hockey player of all time and was honored as Austria's Sportsman of the Year in 2007 .

Career

Youth in Austria and move to the USA

Vanek was born in Baden two years after his parents fled Czechoslovakia (his father is Czech, his mother Slovak). He grew up in Zell am See ( Salzburg ) and Graz ( Styria ), where his father, the Czech ice hockey player Zdeněk Vanek, was involved. He trained the offspring of the EC Graz 99ers in Graz until November 2005 . Zdeněk still plays actively in the NHL Graz (a Styrian hobby league) with the Dolphins.

In 1998, at the age of 14, he emigrated to the USA. In North America his career began in the team of the Sioux Falls O'Gorman High School (Sioux Falls Stampede) in the USHL junior league . His best year there was the last when the 188 cm tall winger scored 46 goals and 91 points in 53 games. This made him the top scorer and the third best assists in the entire league. In 2001 he was drawn as the 25th player in the 1st round of the CHL Import Draft by the Brandon Wheat Kings . He never moved to this club, but his career continued in 2002 as the first European at the University of Minnesota . In his two years he made 113 points scorer. He became the 73rd player at the university to reach the 100-point mark. In the 2003 NHL Entry Draft , he was drawn in fifth place by the Buffalo Sabers in the first round. In the 2004/05 season he played for the Rochester Americans ( AHL ), where he recorded 73 points in 79 games and finished second in the basic round of the points list.

First NHL station in Buffalo

In the 2005/2006 season he completed 81 of 82 games in the basic season for the Buffalo Sabers and scored 25 goals and 23 assists. In the play-offs Buffalo reached the conference final, but Vanek was often not included in the squad and so came only to 10 missions in which he scored two goals. His goal on April 28, 2006 against the Philadelphia Flyers is also the first NHL play-off goal to be scored by an Austrian .

Vanek in the jersey of the Buffalo Sabers (2011)

In the basic round of the 2006/07 season , Vanek became the first Austrian and the first Saber since 1980 to win the NHL Plus / Minus Award with +47 in 82 games. With 43 goals in the regular season, he made it to fifth place in these statistics and was the top goalscorer of his team. He also set the Toronto Maple Leafs starting record with the Sabers from 1993 with ten wins in their first ten games. On December 9, 2006, he decided the game of his Sabers against the Canadiens de Montréal in the shootout , in which he defeated the goalkeeper of the Canadiens with a slap shot. He was only the second player after Brian Rolston to do so.

Vanek and his team got off to a good start in the playoffs and eliminated the New York Islanders 4-1 in the first round . He posted two goals and two assists. In the Conference semi-final against the New York Rangers he scored a total of three goals, two of them in the first game and the winning goal in the second game. The Sabers won the series 4-2. In the conference final, the Sabers played against the Ottawa Senators . The Canadians won the series 4-1. Thomas Vanek was able to achieve two assists and one goal.

In July 2007, Vanek became a Restricted Free Agent and received an offer from the Edmonton Oilers that offered him $ 50 million for seven years. But Buffalo drew level with the offer of the Oilers and was able to hold Vanek, otherwise Buffalo would have received four first-round draft picks from the Oilers as compensation. This made Thomas Vanek the highest paid athlete in Austria. According to the NHLPA players' union, Thomas Vanek, along with Daniel Brière and Scott Gomez, led the salary ranking and was thus one of the highest-paid ice hockey players in the world at the time the contract was signed. In October 2007 he was the first ice hockey player to be voted Austrian Sportsman of the Year .

On February 12, 2008, he succeeded in the game with the Ottawa Senators, his first hat trick in the NHL. In the same season he got two hat-tricks against Tampa Bay Lightning and one in the last game against the Boston Bruins . Still, the Sabers missed the play-off.

Vanek shot on December 13, 2008 in the away game against the New Jersey Devils after 70 seconds the 10,000 NHL goal in the club's history of the Buffalo Sabers. On February 7, 2009, during an away game against the Ottawa Senators, Vanek got the puck in the face and broke his jaw when Ottawa defender Anton Volchenkov shot him. For Vanek it was the first serious injury in his NHL career. Despite the injury, he managed to end the season as the NHL's top power play goalscorer (20 goals). Since returning to the ice, Vanek has been playing with a special visor helmet.

Due to the NHL lockout, he played for the EC Graz 99ers in the EBEL (Austria) from October 2012 . This engagement was limited to a month or until the restart of the NHL season. In the first game of the subsequent NHL season 2012/13 he got five points in one game for the first time in his NHL career, this point achievement he repeated a few days later against the Boston Bruins . For the 2013/14 season Thomas Vanek was appointed captain of an NHL team by head coach Ron Rolston as the first Austrian in NHL history . He performed this office in home games; Steve Ott took on this role in away games .

Short stops in New York and Montreal

After only two wins in the first 13 games, Vanek was given up to the New York Islanders within the NHL . The change had also become apparent due to his contract, which only ran until the summer of 2014, since the last trade deadline . In return for Vanek, the Buffalo Sabers received attacker Matt Moulson , as well as a first-round draft pick for 2014 and a second-round pick for 2015. In the Islanders, he played mainly with John Tavares and Kyle Okposo in the front row and scored 44 points in 47 games.

A few minutes before the trade deadline, Vanek was transferred to the Canadiens de Montréal on March 5, 2014 , who gave Sebastian Collberg and, under certain conditions, a second-round vote in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft to the Islanders. Vanek had previously turned down a contract extension with the Islanders and would not have been tied to the Islanders as a free agent after the season .

Moved to Minnesota, Detroit, Florida, Vancouver and Columbus

On July 1, 2014, the first day of the free agency, he signed a three-year contract with the Minnesota Wild as a free agent . The American media had long speculated about the move to his adopted home Minnesota after Vanek had rejected all contract offers from Montreal and the Islanders. Already after the 2015/16 season, the Wild bought Vanek from his last year of contract (buy-out) , so that he joined the Detroit Red Wings as a free agent in July 2016 . He signed a one-year contract there, but was given Dylan McIlrath and a third-round vote in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft to the Florida Panthers in early March 2017 . Detroit also took half of his salary for the rest of the season. In September 2017, the Austrian moved to the Vancouver Canucks as a free agent on an annual basis . They returned it to the Columbus Blue Jackets for the trade deadline in February 2018 , which in return sent Tyler Motte and Jussi Jokinen to Vancouver.

In July 2018, Vanek returned to Detroit and signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings. In their jersey, the attacker played his 1000th regular season game in the NHL in January 2019. At the end of the season, his expiring contract was not extended, so he has been looking for a new employer ever since. After not finding a new employer, he announced his retirement on February 26, 2020.

International

Already in 2001 Vanek was appointed to the Austrian team for the Junior World Championship in Division I in 2002 , where he was named the best striker. He then also took part in the Junior World Championships in Division I 2003 (which took place in December 2002 and in which Austria made it to the top class) and the Top Division in 2004 . At the same time, in 2004, he made his first appearance at a world championship of the top division in the Austrian national team , in which he had previously made his debut on April 15 of that year in a 2-1 defeat in a friendly against Germany in Ravensburg .

Due to not reaching the play-offs with the Sabers in the 2007/08 season , Vanek was able to play for the Austrian national team for the first time since 2005, when he qualified for the 2006 Olympic tournament . He took part in the Ice Hockey World Championship of Division I in Innsbruck, where he and the team made it back to the top division.

After the Sabers missed the play-offs again in the following season , Vanek kept his promise, made every year, to play for the national team in this case and competed at the 2009 World Cup in Switzerland. There he could not prevent Team Austria from having to go into the relegation round and failing to stay up there despite two wins. Since one of the relegated athletes was Germany, which was automatically qualified to host the next World Cup, Austria had to relegate to Division I. He also represented the Alpine country's team at the 2013 World Cup and the 2014 Winter Olympics .

He also represented the Europe team at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey , where he finished second with the team.

Achievements and Awards

2002 USHL First All-Star Team
2002 USHL MVP
2003 WCHA All- Rookie Team
2003 WCHA Second All-Star Team
2003 WCHA Rookie of the Year
2003 NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team
2003 NCAA Championship Tournament MVP

2004 WCHA Second All-Star Team
2004 NCAA West Second All-American Team
2005 AHL All-Rookie Team
2007 NHL YoungStars Game
2007 NHL Second All-Star Team
2007 NHL Plus / Minus Award
2009 NHL All-Star Game

International

2002 Best striker of the U20 World Junior Championship in Division I, Group A.
2003 Promotion to the top division at the U20 Junior World Championship in Division I.
2003 Top scorer in the U20 World Junior Championship in Division I, Group B
2008 Promotion to the top division at the World Cup of Division I.

2008 World Cup Division I, Group A top scorer
2008 All-Star Team of the World Championship Division I, Group A
2016 2nd place at the World Cup of Hockey

Career statistics

			Regular season					Playoffs
season	team	league	Sp	T	V	Pt	SM	Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
1999/00	Sioux Falls Stampede	USHL	35	15th	18th	33	12	3	0	1	1	8th
2000/01	Sioux Falls Stampede	USHL	20th	19th	10	29	15th	8th	5	4th	9	2
2001/02	Sioux Falls Stampede	USHL	53	46	45	91	54	3	0	0	0	9
2002/03	University of Minnesota	WCHA	45	31	31	62	60
2003/04	University of Minnesota	WCHA	38	26th	25th	51	72
2004/05	Rochester Americans	AHL	74	42	26th	68	62	5	2	3	5	10
2005/06	Buffalo Sabers	NHL	81	25th	23	48	72	10	2	0	2	6th
2006/07	Buffalo Sabers	NHL	82	43	41	84	40	16	6th	4th	10	10
2007/08	Buffalo Sabers	NHL	82	36	28	64	64	-	-	-	-	-
2008/09	Buffalo Sabers	NHL	73	40	24	64	44	-	-	-	-	-
2009/10	Buffalo Sabers	NHL	71	28	25th	53	42	3	2	1	3	2
2010/11	Buffalo Sabers	NHL	80	32	41	73	24	7th	5	0	5	0
2011/12	Buffalo Sabers	NHL	78	26th	35	61	52	-	-	-	-	-
2012/13	EC Graz 99ers	EBEL	11	5	10	15th	4th	-	-	-	-	-
2012/13	Buffalo Sabers	NHL	38	20th	21st	41	20th	-	-	-	-	-
2013/14	Buffalo Sabers	NHL	13	4th	5	9	4th	-	-	-	-	-
2013/14	New York Islanders	NHL	47	17th	27	44	34	-	-	-	-	-
2013/14	Canadiens de Montréal	NHL	18th	6th	9	15th	8th	17th	5	5	10	4th
2014/15	Minnesota Wild	NHL	80	21st	31	52	37	10	0	4th	4th	2
2015/16	Minnesota Wild	NHL	74	18th	23	41	22nd	-	-	-	-	-
2016/17	Detroit Red Wings	NHL	48	15th	23	38	16	-	-	-	-	-
2016/17	Florida panthers	NHL	20th	2	8th	10	6th	-	-	-	-	-
2017/18	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	61	17th	24	41	28	-	-	-	-	-
2017/18	Columbus Blue Jackets	NHL	19th	7th	8th	15th	8th	6th	1	1	2	2
2018/19	Detroit Red Wings	NHL	64	16	20th	36	26th	-	-	-	-	-
USHL total			108	80	73	153	81	14th	5	5	10	11
NCAA overall			83	57	56	113	132
NHL overall			1029	373	416	789	547	69	21st	15th	36	26th

International

Represented Austria at:

Represented Team Europe at:

World Cup of Hockey 2016

year	team	event	result	Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
2002	Austria	U20 World Cup Div. I.	2nd place	5	5	6th	11	2
2003	Austria	U20 World Cup Div. I.	1st place	5	9	4th	13	10
2004	Austria	U20 World Cup	9th place	6th	3	1	4th	37
2004	Austria	WM	11th place	6th	2	5	7th	0
2008	Austria	WM Div. I.	1st place	5	5	5	10	6th
2009	Austria	WM	14th place	6th	1	3	4th	2
2013	Austria	WM	15th place	7th	4th	2	6th	2
2014	Austria	Olympia	10th place	4th	0	1	1	4th
2016	Team Europe	World cup	2nd place	6th	0	1	1	2
Juniors overall				16	17th	11	28	49
Men overall				34	12	17th	29	16

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹ play-downs / relegation )

Others

In November 2009 Thomas Vanek announced on his homepage that he had founded his own youth team with the AAA youth team ITR 26ers . The team is to be based in Minneapolis and give young players the opportunity to improve their skills in the summer months from April to September.

On July 9, 2010, during a visit to Zell am See, the Vice Mayor presented Vanek with a plaque of honor for his services to the city. The board is attached to the winner's gate at the Zell ice rink.

After Vanek testified before the Rochester Federal Court in summer 2014 as a witness in the indictment against an illegal gambling ring, media speculation arose in November 2014 that the Austrian owed up to ten million dollars in betting debts. His advisor then confirmed that the debts were only sums in the low single-digit million range.