Martin Straka

[MarkusNaslund19]

Was a lot more than just Jagr's sidekick.

I recall he was good in Pittsburgh and it looked like they had an embarrassment of offensive riches between the older (Francis, Lemieux, Stevens), the prime (primarily Jagr, but arguably Sandstrom and Nedved as well), and the upcoming in Naslund and Straka...

Then they deal Naslund for Stojanov (this Canucks fan was over the moon). And deal Straka for Troy Murray and Norm Maciver. Murray was gritty and good defensively (as a forward) while Maciver was sort of expansion fool's gold. He was a decent player, but he led the moribund 93 Senators in scoring as a defense man in much the same way that Dick Tarnstrom led the 03-04 Penguins. Someone had to get offensive minutes. In this case it was these guys playing the point on the powerplay and distributing.

Then Straka gets lost in the wilderness. He starts the lockout year with Pittsburgh, gets dealt in the aforementioned deal to Ottawa. Lasts 6 games (end of 94-95) and half a year (95-96), then gets lost to Islanders in the Berard/Redden swap. Struggles there and is ineffective.

Gets picked up off waivers by the Panthers and goes on the run to the cup finals and...is serviceable, but not the player I had seen in Pittsburgh. Starts 96-97 in Florida and averages about half a point a game. Then goes back to Pittsburgh.

97-98 he finds his game with Pittsburgh a bit before exploding for 83 points in 80 games (this is prime dead puck era). Then his career takes off for a couple of years culminating in a 95 point year in 2000-01.

Then he goes through injuries and gets dealt to the Kings and struggles. Comes back after the lockout with the Rangers (and Jagr and Nylander) and thrives.

I know the lazy narrative is that he was only successful with Jagr, but I always saw him as a fantastic facilitator for Jagr. He also had a knack for dragging Jagr into the fight in games that Jagr didn't necessarily look emotionally invested in. Further, his best season (95 points) game while playing with Kovalev and Lang on the 2nd line.

He is also one of very very few players I can ever remember embarrassing Ray Bourque on a play (though I suppose Bill Lindsay is also on that list).

Anyhow, I think he is underrated and under remembered, I'm curious what the consensus is. I'm also curious for any memories or comparisons from this board.

Finally, for any fans of the mid-90's Sens, Islanders, and Panthers, what did you see in Straka. When he was dealt, did it feel like the right move? Were you surprised he broke out again?

Cheers.

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[Filthy Dangles]

Loved him as a Ranger.

 

[mrhockey193195]

While I watched a fair amount of Straka in his prime in Pittsburgh, I was quite young and don't trust my recollection. But I did watch practically every game of his as a Ranger. What struck me about him was - and I hate to perpetuate bunk stereotypes, but it's the most concise way I can explain it - how much of a "North American" style player he was. Given that he was on those highly-skilled Pens teams and on a line with Lang and Kovalev, I expected him to be in that mold. A Kovalev-like player. Instead, he was choppy skater, gritty, and a workaholic on the ice. Not that he didn't have skill - he had plenty - but he was the one on the forecheck turning pucks over for Nylander and Jagr. He was the one backchecking and blocking shots. The guy was the perfect post-lockout player. Very skilled, great in possession, decent enough skater, but also worked his ass off and was positionally very sound.

One of my all-time favorite short-tenured Rangers. Tremendous player.

 

[trentmccleary]

I don't remember him well as a player.
When he was acquired by Ottawa, I was very interested in seeing him. It might have been his second game with the Sens against his former Penguins team. They scored while he was on the ice and it looked like he raised his arms in celebration before sheepishly putting them down.

 

[Dingo]

i didnt see much of him, but the numbers really indicate that Jagr added a lot to his seasons there.

Also, and i guess i need to start looking for clips and saving them - i feel like i have seen Bourque on the wrong end of a lot of highlights.

 

[buffalowing88]

When I was in college we had a group of Czech guys join our club team in North Carolina. All of them were like late-20s, early 30s, guys who were coming back to get their degree late. They spoke very little English and were always smoking outside the rink. They were also incredible hockey players and just nice people in general. I am glad I got the opportunity to know them and play with them when a lot of the other teams we faced would give them shit for having language difficulties. Welcome to the South, I guess.

But this is not to toot my own horn as some advocate of the Czechs, haha. They handled their own far better than I could have. This is more to say that the one thing that stands out about our time together was their ADMIRATION of Straka. This would be around 2006, when he was still contributing quite a bit for the Rangers. The whole group of these guys loved him and were endeared to him and I always wondered what made him so special. I still don't know what it was, to this day, but I'm just here to say that he's an icon in his homeland and looking back at his playoff and international stats, the guy was pretty reliable even in big moments.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Didn’t spend a lot of time in Ottawa, but he had talent on a team where there wasn’t much skill. He was involved in a three team trade between Ottawa, Toronto and the Islanders, and I remember being surprised he was traded. It may have been a money thing though.

Good player. I remember him mostly from playing in Pittsburgh.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

While I watched a fair amount of Straka in his prime in Pittsburgh, I was quite young and don't trust my recollection. But I did watch practically every game of his as a Ranger. What struck me about him was - and I hate to perpetuate bunk stereotypes, but it's the most concise way I can explain it - how much of a "North American" style player he was. Given that he was on those highly-skilled Pens teams and on a line with Lang and Kovalev, I expected him to be in that mold. A Kovalev-like player. Instead, he was choppy skater, gritty, and a workaholic on the ice. Not that he didn't have skill - he had plenty - but he was the one on the forecheck turning pucks over for Nylander and Jagr. He was the one backchecking and blocking shots. The guy was the perfect post-lockout player. Very skilled, great in possession, decent enough skater, but also worked his ass off and was positionally very sound.

One of my all-time favorite short-tenured Rangers. Tremendous player.

i loved him too. he and saku koivu kind of go together in my head, two really small and super skilled guys with not an ounce of let up.

straka also belongs in my head with ray whitney, as in how does a guy that good, with that pedigree, and who had already proven himself as a capable point producer in the nhl, get waived? marty gelinas too, and he wasn’t even small.

 

[Troubadour]

Big head, big heart, good acceleration, fun to watch. He and Jagr could circle the puck for ages.

 

[sr edler]

Straka's a bit forgettable to me.

Felt like Kovalev light, in the sense that he could produce somewhat big numbers if you gave him a unicorn to play with.

 

[24 others]

I read somewhere that Jagr had a hand in keeping Straka during Straka's first tenure in Pittsburgh. Apparently the Pens GM wasn't too impressed with Straka as a rookie, to which Jagr allegedly responded "if he's going, I'm going too". Take it with a grain of salt though, I read it a long time ago and the article was all about how great Straka is (it was published some time during his best seasons) and how they're best pals with Jagr. So it's likely that they pushed the narrative a bit.

 

[buffalowing88]

i loved him too. he and saku koivu kind of go together in my head, two really small and super skilled guys with not an ounce of let up.

straka also belongs in my head with ray whitney, as in how does a guy that good, with that pedigree, and who had already proven himself as a capable point producer in the nhl, get waived? marty gelinas too, and he wasn’t even small.

The Koivu comparison really made me do a double take. What a great comp. Koivu obviously had him beat in the leadership department, but Straka was similar in the ability to play some grit-nosed hockey which I think surprised a lot of analysts back in the day.

 

[DRAGO 18]

His line with Kovalev and Lang in the 99/2000 seasons was incredible and the Penguins best line. Jagr often prefered to skate with the Kip Millers and Jan Hrdinas of the world carrying them mostly around.

When those guys started getting traded, it was almost as devastating as the Jagr trade and a sign of the full rebuild that was on the way.

 

[Hobnobs]

When did he ever have a rep as Jagrs sidekick? I thought he was best remembered for being one part of the Kovy/Lang-line... And for being given up by both Isles and Panthers..

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

When did he ever have a rep as Jagrs sidekick? I thought he was best remembered for being one part of the Kovy/Lang-line... And for being given up by both Isles and Panthers..

i'm pretty sure straka was jagr's regular center in 1999, after francis left. i think he got slowly phased over to LW over the next two years with lang's breakthrough and then mario coming back.

also, i remember him pretty regularly being jagr/nylander's LW on the rangers.

 

[Dread Clawz]

As a Panthers fan, I was excited when we picked up Straka. He added an element the Panthers didn't have much of. I think he played decently in his time in Florida, but just didnt fit into Doug MacLean's system. I wasn't surprised when he broke out with the Pens because he was always capable. Pittsburgh at that time was the perfect team for him. He just never fit in with guys like Lindsay, Skrudland, Hough, Fitzgerald, J.Hull. And he wasn't going to crack Florida's 1st line at the time because Garpenlov meshed so well with Mellanby and Niedermayer, and Mellanby was well, Mellanby.

 

[VanIslander]

Straka was drafted 993rd in the all-time drafts this year.

 

[buffalowing88]

Straka was drafted 993rd in the all-time drafts this year.

Does that seem low to you? I'm still acquainting myself to the ATD but I think he could be about a hundred spots higher personally...

 

[buffalowing88]

i'm pretty sure straka was jagr's regular center in 1999, after francis left. i think he got slowly phased over to LW over the next two years with lang's breakthrough and then mario coming back.

also, i remember him pretty regularly being jagr/nylander's LW on the rangers.

Yeah, you're not wrong. The guy played best with Jagr. I always liked him but the stats don't lie.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Does that seem low to you? I'm still acquainting myself to the ATD but I think he could be about a hundred spots higher personally...

I think you could practically randomize the order of picks 600-1000 and the vast majority of the picks would look reasonable where they ended up. I found myself researching guys for my late rounds that ended up having been taken hundreds of picks earlier.
With that particular exercise, it's all about who thinks a player can fill a role, and in Straka's case - fast, responsible, can play multiple forward positions - I agree that he looks pretty attractive in that regard.
Then there's also the fact that there are always way more players who have found success in elite-level hockey than immediately come to mind. Not to be all "...you newbies" about it, but it's just so easy to mentally take inventory of who's out there and forget completely about certain categories of players (the PCHA, non-Soviet cold war Europeans, whatever skips one's mind).

 

[Evergreen]

Loved him as a Ranger.

Straka - Nylander - Jagr line was incredible for a couple years after the '04-'05 lockout.