Rok Tičar, Division 1-A's Top Forward, signs with Graz 99ers

The day after being named Top Forward of the IIHF World Championship Division I Group A tournament and helping his Slovenia team advance to the top division, Rok Tičar has signed with the Austrian club Graz 99ers of the ICEHL.

“I can only say that, after discussions with the head coach and the sports director, I really like the project in Graz,” Tičar said in a statement released by the club. “We can certainly grow as a team over the course of the season and achieve the goals that we set for ourselves throughout the season. I want to support my teammates so that they can play their best hockey. We want to grow together and, above all, enjoy playing hockey.”

“Rok is a creative center who fits perfectly into our team,” said Graz sports director Phillip Pinter. “He brings a lot of experience and has shown this several times on the international stage. Through his playmaking skills and excellent skating, he gives us the necessary depth at the center position that we really wanted. In addition to his class as a player, he is also a great guy who really wants to win and definitely has some great years ahead of him.”

Tičar led the recently-finished I-A tournament with four goals and showed great ability to improvise on multiple occasions. Two of his goals were particularly memorable, both coming at key times.

In Slovenia’s 2-0 victory over host Italy on Wednesday, Tičar opened the scoring on a play where it looked like he was trying to pass to a teammate in front only to have the puck bounce in off an opponent’s skate.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tajaM8NTdo[/embed]

When I asked Tičar about his “lucky” goal, he smiled and said: “Yeah, it was lucky, but I tried it because I saw there were a couple guys in front and I said, ‘I’m going to try to hit some of them’.”

When I asked for clarification, he confirmed that he intended for the puck to hit an Italian skate in front of the net and hopefully go into the net.

Then in the last game of the tournament, with Slovenia trailing Hungary, Tičar was handling the puck in the attacking zone when he was hooked to the ice. However, he managed to maintain possession while falling and, from his hands and knees, whipped the puck with his stick flat on the ice toward the net and in off the Hungarian goalie's leg.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-ikWa5Sr9Y[/embed]

This was Tičar’s 14^th World Championship representing Slovenia in various divisions. He also played in the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics.

Tičar, 35, scored 11 goals and 41 points in 47 ICEHL games for the Vienna Capitals this past season. Originally from the Slovenian hockey hotbed of Jesenice, he started with that club but his career has taken him to Sweden, Germany, Slovakia and Russia, and he will now embark on his fifth season in Austria.