Injuries have forced the Guildford Flames Ice hockey club to make a roster addition. The club have extended a contract to 36 year old forward Jozef Kohut who will wear Flames colours for the first time since his departure following the 2007-2008 campaign. The 6’1”, 210lb skater joined the side in 2003-2004 when he helped the outfit to the British National League playoff title with a 36 goal, 66 point showing. In addition to that championship, the Slovak native starred in the Flames EPL title of 05-06, the 06-07 Premier Cup, and the league capture during his final term of the original 5 season stint. During his tenure, he iced in just under 250 games, tallied 188 goals and 343 points. That put him 10th on the club’s all time points charts; a place that has since dropped a slot, but will move back to a top 10 position just 4 points into his return.
Since his departure from Guildford, Kohut joined Polish side Zaglebie Sosnowiec where he iced a half season before coming back to the UK on a 2 year deal with Swindon Wildcats. In 2009-2010 he bagged 30 goals and 59 points with the EPL club and began the 2010-2011 season at the Swindon base before returning to Slovakia 10 games into the season. He began this year with Slovak side HK Puchov with whom he had a goal and an assist in 5 starts.
From 1995 through 2003 Kohut iced in his homeland, skating in 200 games for 4 different clubs in the Slovakian Extraleague and 1. League. Prior to his jump to the professional ranks, he had an outstanding junior career that included representing his country at the world championships in 1993 and 1995.
Flames Head Coach Paul Dixon talked about the decision to bring Jozef back:
“We have some injury concerns especially one to Curtis Huppe that is likely to keep him on the sidelines for a lengthy period down the stretch. He and Nathan Rempel are our leading goal getters by a substantial margin so when you lose half of that tandem, it is a worry from an offensive standpoint. We always like to have a bit of depth and we are able to maintain that by bringing Joe back into the fold. He is a shooter, and he has demonstrated his nose for the net both here and in the other stops he has made along the way. We need that in our line up and we think he is a good fit for what we need at this time. On top of that, he has the bonus feature of being a uniquely streamlined case from an administration standpoint. There was not a lot of time before the deadline and we are fully aware of Joe both on and off the ice, both as a player and a character, so in his case we were able to expedite the process and get things put to rest without spending the normal time you might need to research a new player who is not familiar to us.” |
