Roman Hamrlik

Roman Hamrlik was drafted first overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992. He has played for many teams over his long hockey career including the Flames, Oilers and Islanders. Hamrlik was selected to play in All Star games three times throughout his career: in 1996, 1999 and 2003. He also represented his home country, the Czech Republic, at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano Japan and helped carry them to a gold medal championship.

Hamrlik was signed as an unrestricted free agent in 2005 by the Calgary Flames. His contract was worth around 7 million dollars over two years. In Calgary, Hamrlik played a big part in the development of Dion Phaneuf's game. During the 2007 off-season Hamrlik signed with the Habs. Much has been made of his big four year 22 million dollar contract (which works out to around 5.5 million per year). Many analysts say he is overpaid although this contract is what it took for Hamrlik to be attracted to the Canadiens organization when he was an unrestricted free agent back in 2007.

Part of Roman Hamrlik's game is to throw his body around. Hamrlik is 6 foot 2 inches and is not afraid of throwing the big hit. He is a very versatile veteran, Hamrlik can be used on the power play as well as on the penalty kill.

Some of Roman Hamrlik's strengths include his physicality. You will never see Hamrlik go easy on a puck carrier in a corner, he is one of the most competitive players on the Canadiens. Hamrlik is also a great puck mover with crisp passes. After almost 20 seasons in the NHL he has really developed a complete game. Even though he is a veteran, Roman Hamrlik is capable of logging much ice time while still being effective. Hamrlik played a critical part of the Canadiens' defence logging lots of minutes during Andrei Markov's absence in 2009-2010.

Of course no one is perfect and Hamrlik is no exception. Some of Roman Hamrlik's faults include his occasional turnovers. His best years are behind him and he is not the fastest cat in the league. Also his conditioning plays a part in his performance. You won't see Hamrlik do end to end rushes, he has transformed from an offensive defenceman early in his career to more of a stay at home defenceman.

Roman Hamrlik was supposedly associating with a member of the Russian Mafia along with the Kostitsyn brothers. They all had connections to Pasquela Mangiola, who is part of an organized crime organization. Charged with firearms and drug offenses, Mangiola was taken into custody during operation axe. No charges were laid on Hamrlik or the Kostitsyns.

Hamrlik's nickname has always been the Hammer. His nickname, the Hammer, stems from his last name Hamrlik and also from Hamrlik's big hits he will dish out which are few and far between compared to earlier in Hamrlik's career.

One of Roman Hamrlik's defining tendencies is to stop right before gathering a puck behind his net and then jolting his opponents with thunderous checks.