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| Thanks to Flyers History |
Phanatic Hockey Editor
If the Philadelphia Flyers ever engaged in hockey's version of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in one special case there's only a single degree of space between two giants of their times: Eric Lindros and Donald Brashear.
A former member of the Czech Line with the New York Rangers which was also comprised of Petr Nedved and Radek Dvorak, Jan Hlavac came to Broad Street in the blockbuster deal of August 20, 2001, seeing Lindros head to Broadway in exchange for defenseman Kim Johnsson and forward prospect Pavel Brendl.
The 73 days and nights of Hlavac in Orange and Black ended on December 17, when the winger was sent packing to the other end of the continent for the truculent Brashear who made his mark with his fists for the Canucks.
To ease his transition from Rangers blue to Philly's Halloween duds, Hlavac was made right at "home," paired with Brendl and Jiri "the best player in the world not in the NHL" Dopita on an all-Czech line towards the end of the preseason.
"What you're seeing is talent," Flyers head coach Bill Barber said to the Inquirer on the eve of the 2001-02 regular season. "It was all-Canadian at one time in the U.S. Does it really matter? You're a Flyer. You could be a Canadian, a Czech, a Finn, a Swede. . . . People are still going to like our team."
Things never seemed to click for the 25-year-old, however. It took three games to register his first goal of the year, then a five-game goal drought followed as he was shuffled back and forth between lines. He went scoreless in games where he led all players in shots (6 on 10/13 vs. FLA in a 5-2 win; 5 on 11/8/01 vs. TB in a 2-1 victory) and also twice put on a red light in disappointing Flyer losses (10/25 in a 7-2 loss vs. OTT and 11/14 in a 4-2 loss at NYR).
Hlavac's "finest" performance here came on a somber day for the franchise. His lone multi-goal effort -- scoring twice to fuel a three-goal second period in a 5-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on December 8 -- occurred shortly before Barber revealed to the public that his wife, Jenny, succumbed to cancer after a long and brave fight.
That burst of offense came after a seven-game slump which passed without a point, on the heels of an earlier six-game scoreless string.
It might not have been a surprise that, nine days later, the club decided to spin the wheel again. Blessed with plenty of forwards but little spit and grit, Clarke shipped Hlavac off to Vancouver for Brashear.
"I'm shocked," Hlavac said to Tim Panaccio that day. "I guess they expected a different guy. I tried to do my best. I was surprised they put me [on a line] with Mark Recchi for two games. Now I think they wanted to showcase me [for a trade]."
Hlavac failed to solve a goaltender in his final four games with Philadelphia and registered only one assist. He logged a little more than 11 minutes of ice time in a 3-2 home loss to Edmonton on December 16. All told, seven goals and 10 points in 31 games.
As fate and the schedule-makers would have it, Brashear, Hlavac, the Flyers and Canucks crossed paths exactly two weeks later in the last of a series of New Year's Eve games between the clubs. Neither player registered a point in a 2-1 Philly win, cemented when Simon Gagne scored with three seconds left in regulation.
Hlavac managed three more NHL seasons, bouncing between Vancouver, Carolina, another stint with the Rangers, then three years in Europe before coming back in 2007 and suiting up for the Lightning and Predators. Since 2008, Hlavac has split his time between the Czech Extraliga and Swedish Elite League, going for 15 goals and 28 points in 50 games with Kladno and Vaxjo last season.
This concludes our preseason slate. Be sure to head back and check out the first three obscure profiles. Come by this weekend for my 2013-14 Flyers season preview, then stay in October and throughout the season for more AHL, college and NHL news, views and game recaps.
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