Martin Manglay. (source: Archive of M. M. )
Let's start with a seemingly simple quiz question: Who was the first Slovak goalkeeper with an NHL contract? Ján Lašák? Rastislav Staňa?
Both were pioneers who got to experience what the most famous hockey league is like in a handful of games. But as for the answer to the question, they were preceded almost 20 years by a guy known only to hockey connoisseurs.
When Czech sports journalist Luboš Brabec recently discovered some 10 NHL player contracts from the 1980s on an overseas auction server, he was immediately captivated. After a while, leafing through the yellowed papers, he came across a 1981 Toronto Maple Leafs contract, the header of which read: MARTIN MAGLAY, Czechoslovakia, goalkeeper, 19 years old.
Brabec began to search further, contacted a few people from Canada. Thanks to him, Sportnet has an unusual story akin to an adventure novel to tell.
In the text you will learn:
How did Martin Maglay reach the West?
Why did he decide to emigrate?
Which famous Slovak helped him in Toronto?
Why didn't he play more games in North America?
How he founded his own hockey school in Toronto.
A goalie with an artist's soul
"I'm a creative person. I come from a family of three writers, I paint, work with ceramics, write books," says Martin Maglay. During the interview, he lets his artistic soul come forth several times.
He claims that hockey is one of the highest forms of art and calls it dancing in skates on ice.
He grew up in Prešov, where he also became acquainted with the fastest game in the world in the late 1970s.
"I learned to skate on the dead arm of the Torysa river. I never wanted to be a goalkeeper. I didn't play hockey, but I was versatile when it came to physical abilities, I played football and handball. That's probably why I was chosen for the hockey class. I remember that we went to a tournament in Košice.
We played against the under-16 national team and we won the match, even though I had the flu. I was invited to Slovan Bratislava," he describes the beginnings of his hockey career.
Martin Manglay. (source: Sportnet)
He said he wanted a guitar
Slovan Bratislava won its first and only federal hockey title in the 1978/79 season, but the 1970s were also an exceptional era for youth.
In seven consecutive seasons, Slovan just once failed to become the champion of Slovakia. Moreover, it was a five-time Czechoslovak champion.
In 1979, when the team led by coach Eduard Gábriš defeated Škoda Plzeň twice in the final in Zvolen (6:2, 7:2), Martin Maglay was also part of the team.
Thanks to hockey, he also made it to the West several times. An idea of escape took root in Manglay's teenage head.
"I listened to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Marián Varga. I was a hockey player who wore a French beret, a long coat, and I painted. My compulsory military service was approaching. I couldn't imagine living in that system," he explains his motivations. His chance arose on a trip with Slovan to Switzerland.
"We were playing in the town of Leysin in the Alps, and the next day we went shopping in Monthey. I told the coaches that I wanted to get a guitar. At first they didn't want to let me go, but I made a run for it with an English dictionary in a bag.
