Former Rangers Defenseman Tomáš Klouček Dead from Skiing Accident at 45

All of us here at Blueshirt Banter join the New York Rangers and the rest of the hockey community in mourning former defenseman Tomáš Klouček who passed away yesterday, reportedly as a result of a skiing accident in his home country of Czechia. 

Tomáš Klouček played a total of 141 career games in the National Hockey League but got his start with the New York Rangers. Drafted 131st overall in 1998, Klouček began playing with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the QMJHL before eventually graduating to the AHL where he spent one full season with the Hartford Wolf Pack. He made his NHL debut with the Rangers in November of 2000 and picked up his first NHL goal against the Philadelphia Flyers in just his fifteenth game of his career. 

Klouček remained with the Rangers, splitting time between New York and Hartford for the next two seasons before being a part of the trade for Mike Dunham in 2003. After suiting up for eight games in Nashville across two seasons, he finished his NHL career with the Atlanta Thrashers where he played 37 games before the lockout and just one after it. After two seasons in the AHL, Klouček went home to continue his career in Czechia with some time in the KHL in between. In 2014, he helped Kosice HC win the Slovak Extraliga championship and closed out his career in Austria and France before retiring in 2017. 

A big, physical defenseman, Klouček played an honest game and had a respectable career spread across a number of leagues. He was a part of a wave of Czech players that came through the Rangers in the early 2000s’ and will surely be missed by many. Our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and teammates.