Former Slovak ice hockey goalkeeper Ján Lašák (47), world champion from Gothenburg 2002, spoke out loud about the harsh reality in this sport. The topic of money also came up in the podcast. The legendary athlete played a significant role in winning three medals from the World Cup. He was not missing in the silver in St. Petersburg 2000 and in the bronze in Helsinki 2003.
In 1999, Lašák was drafted by the overseas NHL club Nashville Predators in the second round from the 65th place. In the 2001/2002 season, he became the first Slovak goalkeeper in the most prestigious hockey competition. He caught six games for the “predators” and spent most of the season on the farm in the Milwaukee Admirals.
He saw for himself how rough the hockey business can be. “I was in Nashville and it was five minutes to twelve. At twelve o’clock I would be an NHL goaltender, and three minutes before twelve they took the goaltender off the waiver list that I had pushed out of the farm before. That is, at 11:57 I had a contract for 500,000 dollars and I was number two in the NHL, and at 12:01 I was out of work. They pulled me off the bus saying you’re not going to catch against Chicago tonight“, Lašák recalled.
“They sent me to the farm, I was there for a while as the third goalkeeper and after three weeks I packed up my whole family and had to fly home. It looked like I was going to be traded to Los Angeles. That didn’t work,” he continued, adding that after three weeks, the agent informed him that he had a contract for him in Omsk.
The legendary goalkeeper packed up and flew to Europe, but again there was a shocking twist. “While I was on the plane, the manager was fired in Omsk, so the contract fell through. So I was without a contract for two weeks. A completely normal thing. As hockey brings you such things that one day you are there and the next day you are out of work,” he described the behind-the-scenes, which many fans have no idea about.
In an interview, he revealed how much of a signing bonus he received overseas and added in one breath what swallowed up a large portion of that money. “I got a $300,000 signing bonus. After taxes and agent, I’m left with about $140,000 to $150,000,” he spoke openly. “When I played in Milwaukee – the tax was 48 percent. So if you take down 48, plus 5-6 percent to the agent, it’s 53 percent. So realistically, when I signed for 300,000, half of it went away immediately.” he revealed.
He added that when a hockey player is on a farm and receives, for example, 45,000 dollars, he has to slowly bring money from home to make it enough for him. “With the prices that are there now, that sandwiches cost 15-16 dollars. In America, those prices are overkill,” stated the national team goalkeeper coach A badass. “I was on the farm, I was at zero. I was in the NHL for three-quarters of the season, so that’s the only time I actually made anything, otherwise I was at zero. You’re at zero on the farm,” he clarified without embellishment.
“I earned $4,000, $1,200 was an apartment, $300 was furniture, then you had at least one car. And other other expenses, but you only earn 180 days. You only earn the regular season, you don’t even earn the playoffs, when you’re on the farm or in the NHL, you play for free. So you earn eight months, the 4,000. Let’s say you spent 3,000 and you had a thousand left over, some kind of pocket money, but you also had to save for the summer in order to have summer training and so on. So when you don’t have a signing bonus, it’s not easy to survive“, explained Lašák.
It is no secret that there is also big money in the world of hockey, but athletes must learn to handle it without someone from the club leading them by the hand. “The club doesn’t care. You’re basically stolen from the club in quotes. They’ll give you the money and you take care of yourself. At least in my era. Of course, it’s already a bit further, but this is always handled by the agent. You have your agent, who also cares that you somehow increase the money. He also doesn’t want you to lose it. But we know individuals who solve it on their own,” he explained.
“The disadvantage of hockey players or athletes in general as such is that we are terribly naive. A lot of people say that we are stupid, but we are not stupid, we are naive. You grow up in an environment that is naively fair.” he stated, saying that once they enter real life, it’s awfully easy to fool them. Many get burned and learn from their mistakes.
