Pride in Czech Heritage Behind Hasek’s Decision to Retire

Determined to familiarize his children with their Czech heritage and unswayed by the lure of $16.5 million in the last two years of his contract with the Buffalo Sabres, two-time NHL most valuable player Dominik Hasek said Thursday he will retire after the coming season and return to his homeland to become a businessman.

Hasek, voted the league’s top goaltender for the fifth time last season in leading the Sabres to the Stanley Cup finals, said at a news conference in Prague he contemplated the move for nearly a year. He timed his announcement to coincide with the imminent publication of his book in the Czech Republic and to avert speculation about his future when the Sabres open training camp in early September.

“I think it was the best time to do it, “ said Hasek, whose acrobatics led the Czech Republic to a surprising gold medal in the 1998 Nagano Olympics. “In my book I am talking about retiring after next season is over, so I want all my teammates and fans to find out.”

Hasek, who led the NHL last season with a .937 save percentage and ranked second in shutouts (nine) and goals-against average (1.87), will earn $7 million this season and was scheduled to earn $7.5 million in the 2000-01 season. The Sabres have an option on his services for $9 million in 2001-02.

However, he said family came before finances in making his decision--and he insisted his decision is firm enough to preclude defending the gold medal at the Salt Lake City Olympics. Hasek and his wife, Alena, have a 10-year-old son Michael, who was born in the Czech Republic but came to the United States as an infant, and a 4-year-old daughter, Dominika. “If you ask my girl, she says, ‘I am a Buffalo girl,’ ” he said.

That was the crux of the problem for Hasek, 34, who is fiercely proud of his language and culture and takes his family to the Czech Republic every summer.

“When my son and I talk, I talk English with a Czech accent. He speaks Czech with an English accent,” Hasek said. “The longer we stay in the States the more difficult it is for him to adjust when we come back to the Czech Republic. Once I retire, we go back to the Czech Republic, but I want him to go back to the United States if he wants.

“I told him once he reaches 18, if he makes the decision he wants to go back to Buffalo, to the United States to college, he can go. Now, I want him to share in the culture and way of life of the family here.”

Hasek said he already had been asked, half-jokingly, if he would stay if the Sabres offered him $15 million for one year. He said no.

“Money wasn’t an issue at all. I think I have enough money to live a nice life, not only for me, but for my kids and my wife,” he said. “It will be more of an issue that I will miss my friends and being with my teammates.”