Another reinforcement for Pilsen. Jelínek will wear the jersey of the Indians from the new season

“I cared a lot about Petr Jelínek. He is a very experienced player who was the captain in Liberec for a long time. With the Tigers, he was always around the semi-finals, or even the finals, and we want to transfer this experience to our team. So that matches like the fifth in this year’s preliminary round, when we lost a three-goal lead. Fighters like Petr know how to deal with such situations and can handle them. They can calm the cabin and lead others based on their example,” Pilsen general manager and CEO Martin Straka told the club’s website.

After the end of the contract, Jelínek left Liberec after nine years. After four seasons with the captain’s badge, he handed it over to forward Michal Bulíř, but after his injury, he took it back and it remained with him until the end of the year. In it, Jelínek scored 13 points for four goals and nine assists in 49 games. In 10 playoff games, he collected five points on four hits and one assist.

“Petr is a complex hockey player. He is a player to weaken and overpower, he plays it excellently in front of the goal, he knows how to play to the body and he is one of the best players ever at throw-ins. As I already said, we had problems here, and that’s why Petr , but we also rely on Kuba Lev to improve thanks to them,” said Straka.

“And what is of course extremely important for our organization: Petr is great in the booth. He has experienced things in him that we want the young guys to take a look at from him. He blocks an awful lot of shots, plays to the body and generally just works honestly on the ice. He has experience, thanks to them we count on the fact that he will help us with the education of young guys. He is a great guy with an excellent character. An extremely important signing for us,” added Straka.

Jelínek played 922 games in the extra league and scored 366 points for 164 hits and 202 assists. Before the title with Liberec, Slavia won silver (2009) and two bronzes (2010 and 2013), and with the White Tigers he became vice-champion three more times (2017, 2019 and 2021).

“Pilsen was one of the first teams I negotiated with. The organization has been doing excellent work for a long time and playing quality hockey. It’s a new challenge for me,” Jelínek said.

His father Tomáš also wore the Plzeň jersey. The former representative arrived in the 1995/96 season and worked there for the next two seasons. “Dad, who played great years here, also praised me for my choice,” added Jelínek.