2012-11-27 11:06:00 | Färjestad BK

A Background of Alexander Salak

Färjestad´s Alexander Salak in action. Photo: Daniel Briander

Through the first 26 rounds of Elitserien play Färjestad’s goalkeeper Alexander Salak has been one of the best shot stoppers in the league, recording five shutouts and having a solid 94.22 save percentage. Here’s a brief history of how Alexander Salak finds himself in the Elitserien today.

Salak started out his career playing as a youngster for both HC Pisek and HC Ceske Budejovice before going onto represent both HC Strakonice and HC Tabor at the third highest league in the Czech Republic whilst on loan from HC Ceske Budejovice.

After these spells on loan, Salak signed with Finnish team Jokipojat who play at the second highest level of Finnish hockey under the SM-liiga. During his only season at Jokipojat, Salak recorded a saves percentage (SVS%) of .918 after playing in 34 games.

His career in Finland took a big step the year after in the 07-08 season as he moved up to the SM-liiga to play with TPS and trained under famed goaltending coach Urpo Ylönen.

After making 31 appearances during the 07-08 season and recording a respectable 2.59 goals against average (GAA), Salak upped his level of play during the 08-09 season, despite playing for a weak TPS team, appearing in 52 games whilst dropping his GAA to 2.40 and recording 20 wins with 4 shutouts. His standout performance then earned him a contract with the NHL’s Florida Panthers.

Save by Alexander Salak. Photo: Jan Bulér, Pic-Agency.com

After attending the Panthers training camp, Salak was assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans and appeared in 48 games for the club whilst recording SVS% of .910.

During his season with Rochester he was called up to the Panthers squad to play in two games. His first game came in relief of Scott Clemmensen against an Ovechkin-less Washington Capitals. With his team already two goals down, Salak conceded another four, three on the powerplay and one on the penaltykill, and took the loss in contest that his Panthers gave him little offensive help.

His second NHL appearance also came as a relief effort against the Carolina Hurricanes where once again the Panthers didn’t help themselves or their goaltenders as Salak came in with the game already lost at 5-1, but conceded a further two goals just 17 seconds apart with just 5 minutes to play in the third period.

Despite the shaky play at the top, Salak only lost once during the months of October and November for his Rochester side and was one of the big factors that saw his team get to the playoffs.

Alexander Salak. Photo: Simone Syversson, Pic Agency.com

For the 2010-11 season, Alexander was loaned to Färjestad by the Panthers and put together a memorable season as he played in 32 regular season games with a GAA of 1.97, ranking second in the league, before helping his team win the Le Mat Trophy by playing in 9 playoff games and having a SVS% of .904.

On February 9th 2011 Salak’s rights were traded away to the Chicago Blackhwaks where he signed a two-year, one-way contract, but was once again sent down to the AHL due to the Blackhawks signing Ray Emery.

Due to injury, Salak only appeared in 21 games and had a GAA average of 2.69 in what appeared to be a down year for the goalie prospect. However, without the prospect of playing at the NHL level for the 2012 season, Salak made the decision to come back to the Elitserien club that he had already spent time on load at, Färjestad.

This has turned out to be a great move for both player and club as Salak has now won 11 games to help his team reach 4th in the Elitserien table at the time of writing. Färjestad will be looking to keep Alexander Salak in this rich vein of form if they are to maintain their highflying position within the league and I for one will be keeping a close eye on his future performances.