Former Montreal Canadiens center Tomas Plekanec will play a 24e season in professional hockey in 2023-2024.
On Monday, the Kladno Knights, the Czech team for which he has been playing since 2021-2022, announced that they have awarded a new contract to the veteran who will turn 41 next October.
Plekanec was the Knights’ leading scorer last season, scoring 16 goals and 33 assists for 49 points in 52 games.
“The negotiations took a little longer, but we are happy to have finally reached an agreement and Pleky will play another season with our jersey on his back. We all know how important Pleky is to us,” Kladno club general manager Jiri Burger said in a statement.
Plekanec has been playing in the top professional hockey league in his native Czechia since the 2018-2019 campaign. He had made the jump with Kometa Brno after his 16 season stint in the National Hockey League (NHL).
The forward was a third-round pick (71e in total) of the Canadiens in the 2001 Draft. He played 984 of his 1001 NHL games with the Habs. Plekanec also briefly played for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2017-18. In total, he amassed 233 goals and 375 assists for 608 points in the Bettman circuit.
At Kladno, Plekanec is not the club’s oldest player. Jaromir Jagr, who owns the team, is still in the squad at 51.