{"id":590598,"date":"2026-06-04T00:45:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/590598\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T00:45:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:45:30","slug":"devils-legend-named-gm-of-czech-national-team-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/590598\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils Legend Named GM of Czech National Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Czech Ice Hockey Federation announced on Wednesday that <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nhl\/new-jersey-devils\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Jersey Devils<\/a> legend <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nhl\/new-jersey-devils\/devils-left-off-2023-hockey-hall-of-fame-ballot\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Patrik Eli\u00e1\u0161<\/a> has been appointed general manager of the men\u2019s national team. <\/p>\n<p>The executive committee approved the move on the recommendation of federation president Alois Hadamczik. Eli\u00e1\u0161 joins head coach Zden\u011bk Mot\u00e1k on a two-year contract.<\/p>\n<p>Eli\u00e1\u0161 spent his entire 20-season NHL career with the Devils. Selected in the second round of the 1994 NHL Draft, he played 1,240 regular-season games, recording 408 goals and 617 assists for 1,025 points. <\/p>\n<p>He ranks as the Devils\u2019 all-time leader in goals, assists, points, and game-winning goals. Eli\u00e1\u0161 is a four-time NHL All-Star and captured Stanley Cup titles with New Jersey in 2000 and 2003. <\/p>\n<p>Internationally, he earned Olympic bronze and two World Championship bronze medals with Czechia.<\/p>\n<p>Following retirement in 2017, Eli\u00e1\u0161 transitioned into a coaching role. He served as an assistant coach for the Czech U20 team from 2018-19 to 2019-20. <\/p>\n<p>For the past three seasons, he served as team consultant\/advisor for HC Slavia Praha, gaining experience in team operations, player evaluation, and organizational leadership. <\/p>\n<p>Czechia views his background, combined with his extensive NHL knowledge, positions him to identify and develop talent effectively.<\/p>\n<p>Hadamczik <a href=\"https:\/\/ceskyhokej.cz\/novinky\/8870-patrik-elias-a-richard-kral-doplnuji-realizacni-tym-muzske-hokejove-reprezentace\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">emphasized<\/a> Eli\u00e1\u0161\u2019 strengths: \u201cPatrik is a respected personality not only in our country. He has a strong overview of players in the NHL and, thanks to his recent work in Czech hockey, also of domestic players. He possesses managerial skills that will benefit Czech hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The complete national team staff includes:<\/p>\n<p>Head Coach: Zden\u011bk Mot\u00e1k<\/p>\n<p>Assistant Coach: Pavel Gross<\/p>\n<p>Assistant Coach: Richard Kr\u00e1l<\/p>\n<p>Goaltending Coach: Jaroslav Kame\u0161<\/p>\n<p>General Manager: Patrik Eli\u00e1\u0161<\/p>\n<p>Richard Kr\u00e1l was added as assistant coach at the recommendation of Mot\u00e1k and Gross. <\/p>\n<p>Eli\u00e1\u0161\u2019 elevation to a prominent international role extends his influence on the sport and highlights his continued connection to Czech hockey development. From a Devils perspective, however, it certainly is notable, setting Eli\u00e1\u0161 up with experience to potentially earn a management role in the NHL, specifically in New Jersey in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img alt=\"avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780533930_151_653da752580c127b7400004f307990a1a1cb9301e374aec9a861e9de1fa09135.jpeg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-70 photo\" height=\"70\" width=\"70\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\tJames  is  a  fully  credentialed  New  Jersey  Devils  beat  reporter  for  New  Jersey  Hockey  Now  on  Sportsnaut  and  the  &#8230; More about <a class=\"more-bio\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/author\/james-nichols\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Czech Ice Hockey Federation announced on Wednesday that New Jersey Devils legend Patrik Eli\u00e1\u0161 has been appointed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[201,3723,5,576,151,5185,5184,4,6647,2182],"class_list":["post-590598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-jersey-devils","tag-devils","tag-devils-news","tag-hockey","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-newjersey","tag-newjerseydevils","tag-nhl","tag-patrik-elias","tag-team-czechia"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116689077773995319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}