Kopřiva signs on for Slovan

The 29-year old netminder is a stereotypical modern netminder. Standing 192cm tall and weighing in at 94kg, Kopřiva fills a large amount of the net, while also possessing incredibly quick reflexes and lateral movement, which have led to him having great success in his domestic country.

The Kladno native has spent the vast majority of his career with his home town club, rising through the junior ranks before making his senior debut in 2003. Kopřiva spent two and a half years abroad in North America, featuring mainly for the Houston Aeros and the Austin Ice Bats bin the AHL and CHL respectively, before returning to Kladno midway through the 2007-2008 season.

Kopřiva was a sixth round pick in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft for the Minnesota Wild, but never reached the highest level of competition in North America. On his return from the U.S., Kopřiva became a regular fixture in the Czech Republic national team, making fifteen appearances in the 2008-2009 season, and often being included in the national team rosters.

HC Slavia Praha signed Kopřiva in 2011, and the team had a dreadful 2011-2012 season, they bounced back last season to finish second in the regular season, and make the semi-finals of the playoffs. Through the first round, Kopřiva had a goals against average of 0.67 and a save percentage of 96.9%, before injury kept him from featuring in the rest of the playoffs.

Kopřiva joins the growing core of Czech players in HC SLOVAN Bratislava (Vondrka, Škoula and Mojžíš), and is well placed to build on the excellent performances of Czech netminders who have suited up for HC SLOVAN before (Cinibulk, Čapek, Biegl, Barta).

There are still discussions going on regarding the future of last season’s netminder Branislav Konrád. ‘Braňo’ has expressed the desire to move to a club where he will get more playing time. News will follow in the coming weeks when it becomes available.