David Pastrňák wins Zlatá hokejka as Czech player of the year for the 7th time

It wasn’t a huge shock. After all, he’d already won the award six of the last seven years. This season, he finished fifth in NHL scoring with 110 points and scored the game-winning goal in the IIHF World Championship final, so why wouldn’t David Pastrňák win again? But, according to the final voting, Lukáš Dostál and Martin Nečas gave him a good run.

At the 56th edition of the award, presented at a gala event in Prague, the 10 finalists were counted down, interspersed by musical numbers by Czech pop star Ewa Farna and other awards, and Pasta was the one left standing at the end – or rather, his mother was. She accepted the award on his behalf. 

1. David Pastrňák (Boston Bruins, NHL) 595
2. Lukáš Dostál (Anaheim Ducks, NHL) 516
3. Martin Nečas (Carolina Hurricanes, NHL) 510
4. Roman Červenka (SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, Switzerland) 374
5. Filip Hronek (Vancouver Canucks, NHL) 304
6. Pavel Zacha (Boston Bruins, NHL) 290
7. Radko Gudas (Anaheim Ducks, NHL) 275
8. Lukáš Sedlák (HC Dynamo Pardubice) 204
9. Tomáš Hertl (San Jose Sharks/Vegas Golden Knights, NHL) 176
10. Petr Mrázek (Chicago Blackhawks, NHL) 166

The rest of the voting from the first round: 

|In terms of total wins, however, Pastrňák still has a ways to go to catch the all-time leader:

12 - Jaromír Jágr
7 - David Pastrňák
5 - Dominik Hašek
4 - Vladimír Martinec
3 - Milan Nový

Previous winners:

 1969 - Jan Suchý, 1970 - Jan Suchý, 1971 - František Pospíšil, 1972 - František Pospíšil, 1973 - Vladimír Martinec, 1974 - Jiří Holeček, 1975 - Vladimír Martinec, 1976 - Vladimír Martinec, 1977 - Milan Nový, 1978 - Ivan Hlinka, 1979 - Vladimír Martinec, 1980 - Peter Šťastný, 1981 - Milan Nový, 1982 - Milan Nový, 1983 - Vincent Lukáč, 1984 - Igor Liba, 1985 - Jiří Králík, 1986 - Vladimír Růžička, 1987 - Dominik Hašek, 1988 - Vladimír Růžička, 1989 - Dominik Hašek, 1990 - Dominik Hašek, 1991 - Bedřich Ščerban, 1992 - Róbert Švehla, 1993 - Miloš Holaň, 1994 - Roman Turek, 1995 - Jaromír Jágr, 1996 - Jaromír Jágr, 1997 - Dominik Hašek, 1998 - Dominik Hašek, 1999 - Jaromír Jágr, 2000 - Jaromír Jágr, 2001 - Jiří Dopita, 2002 - Jaromír Jágr, 2003 - Milan Hejduk, 2004 - Robert Lang, 2005 - Jaromír Jágr, 2006 - Jaromír Jágr, 2007 - Jaromír Jágr, 2008 - Jaromír Jágr, 2009 - Patrik Eliáš, 2010 - Tomáš Vokoun, 2011 - Jaromír Jágr, 2012 - Patrik Eliáš, 2013 - David Krejčí, 2014 - Jaromír Jágr, 2015 - Jakub Voráček, 2016 - Jaromír Jágr, 2017 - David Pastrňák, 2018 - David Pastrňák, 2019 - David Pastrňák, 2020 - David Pastrňák, 2021 - David Pastrňák, 2022 - Ondřej Palát, 2023 - David Pastrňák.

In addition to the Zlatá hokejka, the following award were also presented:

Best Female Player: Denisa Křižová
Best Junior Player: Jiří Kulich
Best Para Player: Martin Kudela.