Litvinov, North Bohemia, July 16 (CTK) – Czech ice hockey forward Martin Rucinsky, an Olympic winner from the 1998 Nagano games, a triple world cup champion and leader of the first ice hockey league winner Litvinov, has ended his career at the age of 44, the club told journalists yesterday.
Rucinsky was playing the rest of the past ice hockey season with health problems, due to which he could not take part in the Prague world cup in May 2015.
He tried to avoid a surgery of his neck backbone, considering playing another ice hockey season.
However, he announced the end of his active career yesterday.
Rucinsky played 12 seasons for HC Litvinov, having won the title of the Czech ice hockey first league champion in the past one.
He had also played for Sparta Praha and Vsetin in the Czech league.
In NHL, he played over 1,000 matches for Edmonton, Quebec, Colorado, Montreal, Dallas, New York Rangers, Vancouver and St. Louis from 1991 to 2008.
