Veteran Czech forward Vladimír Sobotka is moving one Czech Extraliga contender to another. The 37-year-old is leaving Sparta Prague, where he played for five seasons and was captain last year, to Dynamo Pardubice, the latter club announced on Wednesday.

Sobotka is the latest in a series of high-profile acquisitions over the past couple seasons by Pardubice, which is one of the league’s top teams but the title has been elusive. The club already has under contract for 2025-26 former NHLers Lukáš Sedlak, Libor Hájek, Jakub Zbořil, Martin Kaut, Lukáš Radil, Jiří Smejkal, Miloš Kelemen and Roman Červenka – the captain of the Czech national team and the IIHF Male Player of the Year in 2024-25.

“I’m really looking forward to working with Červus (Červenka),” said Sobotka. “We talked about it and we both can’t wait. Before arriving, I asked him how things were going here and I only got positive answers.”

“We are very happy that Vladimír Sobotka is becoming a part of Dynamo,” said aid club sports director Petr Sýkora. “Despite his age, this signing makes sense for us. There are not many quality centers on the market. Vlada will bring experience, focus, strong work on faceoffs and contribute offensively.”

In 2023-24, Pardubice finished first in the Extraliga regular season but lost Game 7 of the finals in overtime at home to Oceláři Třinec – that club’s fifth straight championship. Last season, Pardubice finished third in the regular season and again lost Game 7 of the finals at home, this time 3-0 to Kometa Brno.

Kometa Brno Returns To Top Of Czech Extraliga Kometa Brno is once again the champion of the Czech Extraliga, defeating Dynamo Pardubice 3-0 in the seventh and decisive game of the finals on Tuesday night in Pardubice. It was the second series in a row that the team won a seventh game on the road.

A fourth-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins in 2005, Sobotka played 548 NHL regular-season games between 2007 and 2020 with the Bruins, St. Louis Blues and Buffalo Sabres, recording 171 points and 362 penalty minutes. He also added 18 points in 51 playoff games.

From 2014 to 2017, Sobotka also played three seasons in the KHL with Avangard Omsk and at the beginning of the 2020-21 season he played four games in Switzerland for the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers.

In his career, Sobotka has played 374 Extraliga games with Slavia and Sparta Prague, recording 342 points, but he’s never won a league title.

Internationally, Sobotka represented Czechia at two IIHF U-18 World Championships, two World Junior Championships, four World Championships and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Photo © Kevin Hoffman-Imagn Images

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