Jan Muršak Explained

Jan Muršak
Birth Date:20 January 1988
Birth Place:Maribor, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia
Position:Left wing
Shoots:Right
Height Ft:5
Height In:11
Weight Lb:192
League:ICEHL
Team:EC KAC
Former Teams:HDK Maribor
Detroit Red Wings
HDD Olimpija Ljubljana
Amur Khabarovsk
CSKA Moscow
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod
SC Bern
Frölunda HC
Ntl Team:SVN
Draft:182nd overall
Draft Year:2006
Draft Team:Detroit Red Wings
Career Start:2004
Website:JanMursak.com

Jan Muršak[1] (born 20 January 1988) is a professional Slovenian ice hockey player for Frölunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). Muršak first played hockey in Slovenia as a member of HDK Maribor before he left to spend one season in the Czech junior league. He was then selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft and moved to the major junior Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and played for two teams, the Saginaw Spirit and Belleville Bulls. After finishing his junior career Muršak then joined the Red Wings American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2008.

Playing career

European career and juniors

Muršak developed his skills in his hometown ice hockey club HDK Maribor where he played until the age of 17. As a youth, he played in the 2001 and 2002 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with a team from Slovenia.[2] He later transferred to Czech club HC Ceské Budejovice for which he played for a season in CZE-U20 youth development league.

In 2006 he was selected by the Detroit Red Wings as the 182nd overall draft pick (6th round). During the same year Muršak was drafted by the Saginaw Spirit in 1st Round of the 2006 CHL Import Draft, 33rd overall. He had a successful first season for Saginaw which earned him a playoff call up for the Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL affiliate to the Detroit Red Wings. In his second OHL season, Muršak was traded from the Saginaw Spirit, to the Belleville Bulls where he stayed until the end of the season, before moving on to play regularly for Grand Rapids in the AHL.

Detroit Red Wings

Muršak signed a contract with the Detroit Red Wings in April 2007. Since his draft in 2006 he has made appearances for the Red Wings during training camps. On 26 December 2010 it was announced by Detroit that Muršak was called up to the team to fill in after an ankle injury of Danny Cleary. He made his NHL career debut on 28 December 2010 in a game against the Colorado Avalanche, thus becoming the second Slovenian, after Anže Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings, to play in the NHL.[3] Muršak scored his first NHL goal on 10 January 2011, also in a game against the Avalanche against Peter Budaj. On 17 February 2011, Muršak signed a new two-year contract with the Red Wings.[4]

Due to the 2012 NHL lockout, Muršak signed a temporary contract with the Slovenian hockey team HDD Olimpija Ljubljana of the EBEL league.[5] In 30 games with Olimpija, he excelled with 48 points, before returning for the start of the shortened 2012–13 season with the Red Wings. On opening night, he was again setback by injury, after hurting his collarbone in a 6–0 defeat against the St. Louis Blues.

On his return to health, and with limited opportunity with the Red Wings, Muršak was placed on waivers on 22 February 2013.[6] He was assigned to the Griffins for the remainder of the season.

Return to Europe

As an impending free agent, Mursak subsequently moved to Amur Khabarovsk of the Kontinental Hockey League.[7]

After re-establishing his offensive presence in seasons with CSKA Moscow, Muršak left the club as a free agent and opted to continue in the KHL in signing a one-year contract with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod on May 1, 2017.[8]

Mursak then played for Frolunda HC in the SHL and scored a brace on his first team game debut against HV71 on January 11, 2018. Mursak currently plays for SC Bern in the NL.

International play

Muršak was chosen to compete on the Slovenia national junior team in the 2008 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (Division I) in Latvia, where he scored one goal and two assists and was named the best forward of the tournament.[9] He made his debut for the Slovenian senior team at the 2010 Division I Championships, held in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana. In 2014, Muršak represented Slovenia at their first appearance at the Olympics. Muršak also represented Slovenia at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang, most notably coming on as a substitute in the last minutes of the game against USA, and scoring two late goals to win them the game.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

  Regular season Playoffs
SeasonTeamLeagueGPGAPtsPIMGPGAPtsPIM
2002–03HDK MariborSVN U1813 27 18 45 14
2003–04HDK Maribor SVN U1822 27 17 44 14
2003–04HDK MariborSVN U2017 6 4 10 122 2 4 6 25
2003–04HDK MariborSVN14 3 3 6 16
2004–05HDK Maribor SVN U2017 12 12 24 352 5 4 9 4
2004–05HDK MariborSVN24 16 29 45 10
2005–06HC České BudějoviceCZE U2043 15 15 30 325 0 2 2 2
2006–07Saginaw SpiritOHL62 27 53 80 506 1 2 3 10
2006–07Grand Rapids GriffinsAHL7 0 2 2 2
2007–08Saginaw SpiritOHL26 6 20 26 15
2007–08Belleville BullsOHL31 11 27 38 821 9 15 24 10
2008–09Grand Rapids GriffinsAHL51 2 7 9 256 0 1 1 0
2009–10Grand Rapids GriffinsAHL79 24 18 42 46
2010–11Grand Rapids GriffinsAHL54 13 22 35 35
2010–11Detroit Red WingsNHL19 1 0 1 4
2011–12Grand Rapids GriffinsAHL6 0 1 1 2
2011–12Detroit Red WingsNHL25 1 2 3 0
2012–13HDD Olimpija LjubljanaEBEL30 19 29 48 9
2012–13Grand Rapids GriffinsAHL23 4 12 16 1223 11 6 17 23
2012–13Detroit Red WingsNHL2 0 0 0 4
2013–14Amur KhabarovskKHL36 12 9 21 28
2013–14CSKA MoscowKHL13 0 4 4 274 0 1 1 7
2014–15CSKA MoscowKHL53 17 26 43 2016 3 7 10 2
2015–16CSKA MoscowKHL51 14 22 36 308 0 0 0 4
2016–17CSKA MoscowKHL33 6 13 19 579 1 2 3 11
2017–18Torpedo Nizhny NovgorodKHL13 0 1 1 18
2017–18Frölunda HCSHL15 10 10 20 46 0 3 3 0
2018–19SC BernNL32 10 11 21 2415 5 5 10 10
2019–20SC BernNL42 9 16 25 24
2020–21Frölunda HCSHL48 8 17 25 367 2 1 3 8
2021–22Frölunda HCSHL47 9 9 18 148 3 2 5 27
2022–23Frölunda HCSHL40 8 11 19 3912 0 4 4 6
2023–24EC KACICEHL38 15 32 47 5017 3 12 15 6
NHL totals46 2 2 4 8
EBEL / ICEHL totals68 34 61 95 5917 3 12 15 6
KHL totals199 49 75 124 18037 4 10 14 24
SHL totals200 35 47 82 9333 5 10 15 41
NL totals74 19 27 46 4815 5 5 10 10

International

YearTeamComp GP G A Pts PIM
2005SloveniaWJC18 (Div I)5 1 2 3 4
2006SloveniaWJC (Div I)5 3 2 5 2
2006SloveniaWJC18 (Div I)5 1 1 2 8
2007SloveniaWJC (Div I)5 3 2 5 10
2008SloveniaWJC (Div I)5 1 2 3 0
2010SloveniaWC (Div I)5 5 2 7 2
2014SloveniaOG5 1 2 3 4
2014SloveniaWC (Div IA)5 1 2 3 2
2015SloveniaWC6 1 0 1 2
2016SloveniaOGQ31120
2017SloveniaWC7 3 1 4 8
2018SloveniaOG4 3 3 6 0
Junior totals25 9 9 18 24
Senior totals35 15 11 26 18

Awards and honours

AwardYear
OHL
Second All-Rookie Team2007
AHL
Calder Cup (Grand Rapids Griffins)2013
NL
Champion (SC Bern)2019[10]
International
Best Forward (IIHF U20 Championships Division IB)2008

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Jan Mursak selects NHL . SloveniaTimes.com . 2011-01-02 . 2011-01-02 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110614163238/http://www.sloveniatimes.com/en/inside.cp2?uid=C5FEBB19-EDB5-4F35-670F-A06DEEE96F34&linkid=news&cid=13C09426-03B1-428E-48D0-1B4B054546FD . 14 June 2011 . dmy-all .
  2. Web site: Pee-Wee players who have reached NHL or WHA. 2018. Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament. 2019-02-15. 6 March 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190306085544/https://www.publicationsports.com/ressources/files/439/Joueurs_Pro.pdf. dead.
  3. Web site: Cleary out, Mursak to make NHL debut. Grand Rapids Griffins. 2010-12-27. DetroitRedWings.com. 2010-12-27.
  4. Web site: Red Wings sign Jan Mursak to two-year deal. Ansar Khan. 2011-02-17. mlive.com. 2011-02-23.
  5. Web site: A Red Wing for Olimpija . . 2012-09-24 . 2012-09-24 . German.
  6. Web site: Jan Mursak wishes he'd have gotten better opportunity with Red Wings, but knows it's time to move on . mlive.com . 2013-02-22 . 2013-02-22.
  7. Web site: Kimelman. Adam. Dark horses at Olympics to benefit from NHL talent. NHL.com. 10 February 2014.
  8. Web site: Jan Mursak signs a contract with Torpedo . . 2017-05-01 . 2017-05-01 . Russian.
  9. Web site: Best Players Selected by the Directorate. 2007-12-18. IIHF. IIHF. 2010-12-27.
  10. Web site: SC Bern 2019 Swiss Champions! . leading-sport.com . 22 April 2019 . 22 April 2019.