The St. Louis Blues say they hired the former Senator for his offensive expertise, ending his long hiatus from the NHL.
Former Senator Vaclav "Vinny" Prospal is back in the NHL.
13 years after his long 1108-game NHL career came to a close, Prospal returned to the league on Monday when the St. Louis Blues signed him to a multi-year contract to be one of Jim Montgomery's assistant coaches, starting this fall.
In a team press release, Montgomery spoke highly of the former Senator, who played in Ottawa from 1998 to 2001.
“Vinny brings a creative offensive mind, honed by his success as a player on the power play and five-on-five," Montgomery said.
Over the past three seasons, Prospal has been learning the North American coaching ropes as an assistant coach with the Rochester Americans, Buffalo's top farm club. Before that, he served three years as head coach of a pro team in Czechia, and did two years as an assistant coach of his national team.
Now 51, Prospal can look back on an outstanding NHL career, appearing in 1,108 games, 213 with Ottawa, and scoring 765 career points. He suited up for Czechia at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and twice won gold at the Worlds.
His arrival in Ottawa in March of 1998 was the end of a disappointing chapter for the Senators organization, which had nothing to do with Prospal. When the Sens drafted Quebec Junior phenom Alexandre Daigle in 1993, the entire hockey world thought they had acquired the game's next great superstar.
Daigle ended up being a good NHL player, but certainly not a great one. When they finally accepted that and moved on, the Senators dealt him to Philadelphia for Pat Falloon, who went second overall in the 1991 NHL Draft after Eric Lindros. Falloon never panned out either, and he played just 28 career games with the Sens.
But the Sens also got Prospal in that deal, and though he was merely a third-round pick by the Flyers, he was by far the best player in the deal.
In January of 2001, after his slow start to the season, Prospal was traded to Florida for a mid-round draft pick, which was a terrible decision in hindsight.
Prospal went on to play 818 more games in the NHL.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This story was first published at The Hockey News' Ottawa Senators site. Check out more from THN.com/Ottawa at the links below.
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