canucks4ever
Registered User
- Mar 4, 2008
- 3,997
- 67
As a player: canadian, ethnicity is obviously slovak. He speaks the language and visits the country.
The only way to find this out is to ask Stan Mikita if he considers himself Canadian or Slovakian.
The only way to find this out is to ask Stan Mikita if he considers himself Canadian or Slovakian.
Well, he did claim himself to be Slovak, but I'm pretty sure he also considers himself a Canadian too (would be weird not to).
In the linked article, he says: "I was born in Czechoslovakia in 1940 and came to Canada as 8-year old with my uncle and aunt, who adopted me. I knew only one word in English, my name changed from Stanislav to Stanley. I proudly say, that I'm Slovak."
Citizenship doesn't really define you as anything, it's just a paper. Stastny isn't Canadian if he's Canadian citizen.
Mikita is Slovak and Canadian both. As a player however, he's just Canadian.
Mikita learned to play hockey in Canada, and because of that he is a product of Canadian hockey. When it comes to which country a player is from in the hockey sense this is by far the biggest factor to me.
Funny enough, Petr Nedved also played for Canada...
Mikita is Slovak, especially when he claim this himself. He was born here, his parents were slovaks and he is proud of it. However I donot list his records as slovak player s records, If it makes sense to you.
Agreeing with the poster who said that as a hockey player your nationality should lie with where you received your hockey education. Mikita is Canadian, Kolzig is Canadian, Regehr is Canadian, Hull is Canadian, Bondra is Slovakian, Heatley is Canadian, etc.
Kolzig plays for Germany because he can, but for all intents and purposes he should be considered a Canadian hockey player - especially when you consider the fact that Kolzig himself thought he was Canadian until he tried to play for the Canadian world junior team and was told his passport (and citizenship) was actually German.
And that mean you have flaws in your theory. Many posters are tryin' to suggest there is something called a "hockey nationality". WTF is that?as others have said, to me it's not where you were born, which passport(s) you hold, or even who you represent in intl competition, but where you mostly were trained. therefore, peter stastny is slovak, nedved is czech, trottier and brett hull and deadmarsh are canadian, alex steen and sandstrom are swedish, etc.
the grey area is soviet born players who represented russia but were born in soviet states that were not russia. kasparaitis, nabokov, and tverdovsky are examples. i don't know enough about where they played minor hockey and how early they were funnelled into the centralized soviet hockey apparatus (based in russia) to say whether these guys can be considered russian, as opposed to irbe, ozolinsh, zhitnik, etc.
In the linked article, he says: "I was born in Czechoslovakia in 1940 and came to Canada as 8-year old with my uncle and aunt, who adopted me. I knew only one word in English, my name changed from Stanislav to Stanley. I proudly say, that I'm Slovak."
And that mean you have flaws in your theory. Many posters are tryin' to suggest there is something called a "hockey nationality". WTF is that?
Mikita is Slovak by any meanings. Deal with it. I do not list his records as records of Slovak hockey player, but he is Slovak.
Arturs Irbe would feel offended if you've called him russian. He cryied when Latvians won over Russia and called that his best hockey day in his life. You would not hear that from Mikita if there was such matchup.
Citizenship doesn't really define you as anything, it's just a paper. Stastny isn't Canadian if he's Canadian citizen.
Mikita is Slovak and Canadian both. As a player however, he's just Canadian.
Is Rod Langway considered Taiwanese?
Interesting.
I'm an Italian born in the United States, yet If I wanted to I could apply for Italian citizenship and it would be granted given the fact I'm ethically Italian, hence if I wanted to, I could play for Team Italy despite the fact I've never been to Italy...
I would certainly call myself an American first and would have no desire to play for Team Italy if I was a player. Honestly I would find it bizarre if I was a player and Italians were championing my name.
I'm sure Mikita is flattered but I'm certain he just views himself as a Canadian just as much as I view myself as a US citizen...
Actually, you couldn´t. Please check IIHF´s eligibility rules for players with dual citizenship/players changing citizenships: http://www.iihf.com/channels/iihf-world-championship-oc09/home/iihf-eligibility.html
You do realize that he wasn't born in Canada, do you? Your comparison to 2nd (or n-th) generation Italian born in the US is off.Italy would certainly grant me citizenship on request..
I suppose that was my point.
Just because I have a right to be an Italian citizen doesn't make me any less of a US citizen or anymore Italian. I'm certainly an "American."
I could only assume thats how Mikita views himself.. He's a Canadian who just happens to have Slovak heritage.